Last month, our team from ABL South Africa met with our Regional Managing Director MENSA&I to attend IADC Drilling Africa in Namibia and contribute to the discussion regarding the industry’s future in the region along with the recent positive developments in the country and continent.
The Oil & Gas sector in Namibia has recently attracted global interest following the recent discoveries by Majors TotalEnergies and Shell. As expected, discussions evolved around ultra-deepwater mining with TotalEnergies wells exploration in water depths of 3000m, approximately 600m deeper than the deepest producing well currently in service.
Presentations were made addressing the re-deployment of two of the world’s most sophisticated harsh environment semi-submersible drilling rigs to West Africa, highlighting the extreme weather conditions that can be faced offshore the region in addition to the extreme water depths.
Technical focus extended to successful projects in addressing drilling time optimisation through “under the rig floor” offline operations, and a case study presented on an Annular Pressure build-up Model and Validation through well testing to ensure well design reliability.
The forum positive acknowledged the need for skill transfer, upskilling and enablement of Namibian nationals to enter employment in the industry in a push to alleviate unemployment and poverty in the country.
Additional focus was placed on putting mechanisms in place to attract young professionals to the industry and develop the next generation of rig site leaders along with bridging cultures in operations to increase operational safety.
The broader discussions focused on Africa’s unique stance to a just energy transition, stressing the urgency to transform Africa’s energy sector. The Oil and Gas sector is expected to play a critical role in the following years to both stimulate the continent’s economic growth and industrialisation, as well as support the developed regions in reducing their carbon footprint through the import of gas for utilisation as base load fuel. The forum acknowledged the integrated role renewable energy will play in the new energy economy, and the need for communication and collaboration to achieve optimum results and benefits.
The ABL team in attendance:
Donald McMillan, Regional Managing Director ABL MENSA & India
Anne Myers, Country Manager South Africa
Marius Venter, Senior Marine Surveyor, ABL South Africa
