TotalEnergies has won “Discovery of the Year” from Wood Mackenzie for its Venus find, offshore Namibia.
“For the third time in our industry-leading survey, TotalEnergies has received the illustrious recognition of being named the most-admired explorer. I would like to congratulate the company’s long-standing head of exploration, Kevin McLachlan, and his team for a well-deserved win,” said Dr. Andrew Latham, senior vice president at Wood Mackenzie.
Total is working on the Namibian licence along with QatarEnergy (QE), Impact Oil & Gas and Namcor.
Latham said the industry admired “operators who can not only open new frontiers, but also find large volumes of advantaged resources. TotalEnergies recent efforts and discoveries have been excellent examples of both trends.”
Total won the award based on responses to WoodMac’s 15th exploration survey. The survey asked which companies the respondents most admired.
Latham noted the water depth of the Venus discovery, in 3,000 metres. It is “truly a play opener that has the entire industry very excited,” said Latham. “If this project is able to move forward, it will establish an important new industry for Namibia.”
Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné has described the company’s Namibian licence as a potential “golden block”, a reference to the highly productive Block 17 in Angola.
The French company drilled the Venus find in early 2022. It returned to exploration and appraisal on the block this year and is nearing a flow test. WoodMac has said Venus could hold 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent recoverable. Such a find could provide a development of 250,000 barrels per day.
WoodMac also declared Hess to the E&P Explorer of the Year and Petrobras as the NOC Explorer of the Year.
Petrobras made the Aram discovery in 2022. WoodMac noted appraisal on the find could prove up 2 billion barrels in the Santos Basin.
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