In yet another deal within the Orange Basin, Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas has announced its acquisition of another 6.25% in South African block 3B/4B. The company already entered the block earlier this year when it acquired Azinam, who holds a 20% non-operated interest in the license.
Eco Oil & Gas is acquiring its additional 6.25% from the Lunn Family Trust, one of the largest shareholders of Ricocure (Pty) Ltd. Ricocure is a 60% interest holding in Block 3B/4B.
The license is located in the deep waters of the Orange Basin in the Southern African Atlantic coast, south of the maritime border between Namibia and South Africa. The zone is notably located along-trend of an emerging Mid-Cretaceous oil play where Shell and TotalEnergies discovered oil and gas at their respective Graff-1 and Venus-1 high-impact exploratory wells in Namibia in early 2022. Both wells were play-openers for a new petroleum province offshore Namibia and South Africa, which could be further proven with exploration on Blocks 3B/4B.
The license has been subject to substantive exploration spending, including from previous operator BHP Billiton who acquired a 10,000km² GeoStreamer 3D survey in 2012, while Shell acquired a further 8,000km² of 3D to the north of the block at the same time.
In addition to 3D seismic data, 1,400 km of multi vintage 2D seismic also spans the licence. Such data has allowed current partners, including new operator Africa Oil Corp since 2020, to identify an inventory of leads and prospects out of which Wolf, previously known as Aardwolf, could be subject to exploratory drilling.
Details on the exploration of Block 3B/4B are available in the “Projects” section within your Hawilti+ research terminal.