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NAMIBIA: Why PanContinental’s Hopes Linger on Venus -1, Graff-1 Drilling Results

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  • French major TotalEnergies has commenced drilling its ultra-deep Venus-1 well in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia
  • On-trend, Pancontinental has mapped the very large Saturn turbidite complex in PEL 87. Saturn is geologically similar to Total’s Venus Prospect
  • Venus and Saturn overlie the same high-quality mature Oil Source Rock, and both lie immediately below the major Regional Seal
  • The Maersk Voyager drillship has commenced Venus drilling in 3,000m of water. Partners in the well are TotalEnergies (40%), Qatar Petroleum (30%), Impact Oil & Gas (20%), NAMCOR (10%)
  • Shell Exploration & Production is also expected to soon commence the Graff-1 well with the drillship Ensco DS-10. Graff-1 will test a stratigraphically younger target than Venus and Saturn
  • Venus-1 and Graff-1 are on-trend and about 130 Km south of Pancontinental’s PEL 87 area
  • Either well could prove the Orange Basin offshore Namibia as a major new oil province

PEL 87 Overview
PEL 87 Joint Venture interests arePancontinental Orange Pty Ltd 75% (Operator), Custos Investments (Pty) Ltd 15%, National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) 10%.
Pancontinental is well-positioned in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia with PEL 87 covering a 10,970 km2 block with significant oil potential in the Saturn turbidite complex that spans more than 2,400km2.


Pancontinental’s Technical Director, Mr Barry Rushworth commented- “The delayed Venus-1 well offshore Namibia has now started operations ontrend to Pancontinental’s PEL 87. The drilling of the Graff-1 well is also expected to follow with the rig currently moving towards the drilling location. 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. In a carbon-transition world that is growing and still hungry for energy, the fact is that oil remains an unavoidable part of the energy mix until we achieve a full transition”.
Shell and Total are two of the world’s largest and most successful oil companies. “Pancontinental is the only listed junior company in this
exciting Orange Basin play offshore Namibia and we watch with great interest as drilling proceeds”.

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