The Kudu gas field is an offshore
gas field
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
in
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
approximately north-west from the town of
Oranjemund
Oranjemund (German for ''"Mouth of Orange"'') is a diamond mining town of 4,000 inhabitants situated in the ǁKaras Region of the extreme southwest of Namibia, on the northern bank of the Orange River mouth at the border to South Africa.
Histo ...
. It is located in the Orange Sub-basin in of water.
[
]
History
Discovered in 1974, the license has been held by a number of companies including
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
,
Chevron Texaco and Energy Africa. In 2004,
Tullow Oil
Tullow Oil plc is a multinational oil and gas exploration company founded in Tullow, Ireland, with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
His ...
acquired Energy Africa for US$570 million and with its 90% interest in the license. Later Tullow Oil sold 20% of the project to Itochu.
[
] The remaining 10% is held by Namibian state oil company Namcor.
[
]
On Tuesday, 18 September 2007, shares of Tullow Oil declined by more than 3.0% after the group announced that it had to abandon the Kudu-8 exploration well offshore Namibia and that a second well planned nearby won't be drilled.
In 2010, Namcor and Russian gas company
Gazprom agreed to establish a special purpose company to take a majority stake in the Kudu gas field.
[
]
In 2017, BW Kudu, a subsidiary of
BW Offshore
BW Offshore Limited is a global owner and operator of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels. The company is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. The company has its headquarters in Singapore and Oslo, Norway but operates international ...
, entered into a Farm-Out Agreement for a 56% stake of the Kudu license.
Namcor holds the remaining 44% stake in the license.
Reserves
The field is estimated to contain of proven natural gas reserves however more recent exploration and analysis suggests that reserves could reach with potential up to .
[
] These figures though are dependent on further work that is yet to be carried out by Tullow Oil on different parts of the field with other geological settings.
Development
Suggested development of the field has been for a subsea tie back which would potentially make it one of the world's longest. The tie back would connect it to an 800-megawatt power plant to be located near Oranjemund. The field would be crucial in meeting Namibia's growing energy demand, as the country is currently facing a power crisis. The commissioning of Kudu gas and the additional power capacity of 400 MW (half of the total capacity of 800 MW is determined to benefit Namibia), the looming power shortages could be prevented.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kudu Gas Field
Oil fields of Namibia
Natural gas fields in Namibia
ǁKaras Region