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Drilling begins near Pancontinental Energy’s (ASX:PCL) Namibia play

ASX News, Energy
ASX:PCL      MCAP $185.5M
03 December 2021 08:19 (AEST)

Crew working an offshore drill rig. Source: TotalEnergies.

Pancontinental Energy (PCL) advises drilling has begun at several plays on trend from its PEL 87 joint venture in offshore Namibia.

PCL owns a 75 per cent stake in the project, and is the operator of the roughly 10,000-square-kilometre block in the Orange Basin.

Fellow energy business TotalEnergies recently commenced drilling its ultra-deep Venus-1 well in the Orange Basin.

Pancontinental said this particular play shares similarities to the Saturn turbidite complex which is located within PEL 87.

In addition to TotalEnergies exploration, Energy giant Shell is also expected to begin drilling the Graff-1 well in the Orange Basin.

Shell’s play is on trend with the Venus play and lies around 130 kilometres south of PCL’s PEL 87 joint venture.

PCL is hopeful the exploration at the two nearby wells could prove the wider area they’re all located in as a major oil province.

Pancontinental Energy’s Technical Director Barry Rushworth said it was an exciting development.

“The delayed Venus-1 well offshore Namibia has now started operations ontrend to Pancontinental’s PEL 87,” he said.

“The wells are being drilled by Shell and Total, two giants in the world’s
energy scene.

“Total’s Venus-1 has started drilling in ultra-deep conditions where the oil
prize has to be very large to justify the drilling effort.

“In fact, Pancontinental’s Saturn play is also very large and very similar
geologically to Total’s Venus Prospect, and in shallower water.

“Shell’s imminent Graff-1 is geologically shallower than Venus and Saturn. All
the same, success would be extremely meaningful.”

Shares in PCL were trading at 0.2 cents each at 10:19 am AEDT.

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