SOUTH AFRICA – Qatar Petroleum has entered into agreements with TotalEnergies to acquire working interests in three offshore exploration blocks in South Africa.
Under the terms of the agreements, which are subject to customary approvals by the government of South Africa, Qatar Petroleum will hold a 25% participating interest in the South Outeniqua block, a 30% participating interest in the DWOB block, and a 29.17% participating interest in the OBD block.
The South Outeniqua block covers an area of approximately 49,000 km2 in water depths ranging between 200 and 5000 m.
TotalEnergies is the operator and holds the remaining participating interest in the block which is located directly south of the 11B/12B block where TotalEnergies, Qatar Petroleum, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and Main Street Ltd. have announced significant gas condensate discoveries in the Brulpadda and Luiperd prospects.
The DWOB and OBD blocks cover a combined area of about 53 000 km2 in water depths ranging between 1,000 and 4,200 m and are located in the Orange Basin directly south of Namibian blocks 2912 and 2913B in which Qatar Petroleum already holds participating interests, and in close proximity to Blocks 2913A and 2914B, into which Qatar Petroleum’s entry was recently announced, pending customary approvals.
The other JV partners in the DWOB block are TotalEnergies (operator) with a 50% participating interest and Sezigyn with a 20% participating interest. In the OBD block, the JV partners are TotalEnergies (operator) with 48.61%, participating interest, and Impact with 22.22% participating interest.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “These acquisitions represent an excellent addition to our South African regional upstream portfolio, and build upon the positive progress following the recent drilling success in the 11B/12B block.”
In June 2021, TotalEnergies and its partner Qatar Petroleum were awarded Block 6 and Block 8 in Suriname, South America.
“These acquisitions represent an excellent addition to our South African regional upstream portfolio and build upon the positive progress following the recent drilling success in the 11B/12B block”
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi – CEO, Qatar Petroleum
TotalEnergies shall operate these blocks, situated in shallow water with depths between 30 meters and 50 meters, and adjacent to the TotalEnergies operated Block 58, where 4 significant discoveries have been made since January 2020 and where operations are continuing in 2021.
With these two newly operated exploration blocks, TotalEnergies expands its position in Suriname, an emerging world-class basin.
A 3D seismic acquisition campaign will be carried out on these 2 licenses to confirm their potential.
“This award demonstrates our ability to capture exploration acreage in a core area for TotalEnergies, pursuing our strategy of exploring for low development cost oil resources in highly prospective basins, particularly here, reinforcing our operatorship position in Suriname Block 58 ”, said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration.
“We are delighted to continue to expand our strategic international partnership with Qatar Petroleum on these blocks.”
TotalEnergies will operate the blocks with a 40% working interest, alongside Qatar Petroleum (20%) and the national company Staatsolie (40%).
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