WINDHOEK, Dec 12 – Shell is set to launch a new drilling campaign in Namibia’s offshore PEL 39 block beginning April 2026, marking a renewed push into one of the world’s most closely watched exploration frontiers.
Shell’s Namibia country chair, Eduardo Rodriguez, announced that the company has awarded a contract for the Deepsea Mira drilling unit, operated by Odfjell Drilling and owned by Northern Ocean.
The move comes months after Shell wrote down roughly $400 million in January following an earlier discovery in the same block that it deemed commercially unviable. Despite the setback, Shell and its partners QatarEnergy and Namibia’s state-owned Namcor remain committed to further exploration as interest in the Orange Basin accelerates.
The basin has become a global hotspot following major finds by Shell, TotalEnergies and Galp, placing Namibia at the center of a new wave of frontier oil exploration.
While the country has yet to produce oil, authorities maintain an ambitious target for first production by 2030, supported by successive large-scale investments and rising international interest.
The upcoming campaign signals continued confidence from global energy majors in the basin’s long-term commercial potential.
