The Namibia National Petroleum Corporation (Namcor) announced the achievement of a third oil discovery with its partners, Shell and Qatar Energy, in the deep-water “Jonker-1X” exploration well in the Orange Basin off the coast in southern Namibia.
The new discoveries would make Namibia, Angola’s southern neighbor, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), another oil-producing country on Africa’s Atlantic coast.
The company’s managing director, Emmanuel Mulonga, said in a statement: The oil discovery in the region is the third after the success of “Shell” and “Total Energies” in discovering “Graf-1X” and “Phenis-1X” in 2022.
The statement stated that the incoming data is being evaluated, and it is planned to increase exploration drilling to determine the size and potential of the discovery.
Shell Namibia B.V. and Qatar Energy own a 45 percent stake in the joint venture, while Namcor owns 10 percent.
And the profits of the “Shell” company had jumped in the fourth quarter of last year in a way that exceeded expectations, as the natural gas activity boomed, bringing the company’s performance to a record level in 2022, driven by high energy prices.
The oil giant said it achieved record profits of $40 billion in 2022, supported by the rise in energy prices following the Ukraine crisis.
Thus, the company’s profits in 2022 have exceeded the previous record level of $28.4 billion recorded in 2008, and more than doubled the profit in 2021, which amounted to $19.29 billion.