Namibia has granted Reconnaissance Energy Africa the environmental clearance certificate (ECC) to drill another 12 wells on its northeastern licence.
ReconAfrica said the ECC would allow it to drill exploration and appraisal wells in the Kavango Basin, from this month until July 2026.
The company aims to use drilling programme to establish commercial quantities of hydrocarbons. It found evidence of these in its first three stratigraphic test wells.
The company has previously said that it would seek to secure a farm-in partner before starting drilling. A presentation in June said it planned to drill the first Damara well in the fourth quarter of this year.
It said that, in the third and fourth quarter this year, it would develop and rank its prospect inventory to carry out the well drilling programme. This would encompass its two primary plays, with an initial focus on the Damara Fold Belt. It also has Karoo Rift Basin prospectivity.
Generational change
Speaking at the Global Energy Week in London recently, ReconAfrica IR man Grayson Andersen said there was a “huge opportunity but it comes with a laundry list of challenges, because we’re capital limited, we’re not producing revenue. We do have to go to the capital markets and continue going to those markets for money.”
A farm-out would help solve such a challenge, he said.
Andersen also commented on the “tremendous obstacles” ReconAfrica has faced from various groups and NGOs. Such actions, he said, prevent the company from providing “what every developed country in the world has, a sustainbale useful economic oil and gas industry. We overcome those challenges because we have such a unique project.”
ReconAfrica has a rift basin and the Damara Fold Belt, which has a potential 14 trillion cubic feet of gas. “Everything we do seems to be getting better,” Andersen said. “Offshore will provide revenues, but the exponential benefits of an onshore modern oil and gas industry will provide multi-generational change to that country.”
Netherland, Sewell & Associates is due to provide an annual update of ReconAfrica’s prospective resources for both its play types by the end of July.