Canadian oil and exploration company, Canada’s Reconnaissance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica) has found indications of oil at its Naingopo onshore exploration well and will look to accelerate drilling in the region.
Brian Reinsborough, the CEO of ReconAfrica, announced the company’s discovery on Thursday in a statement according to a report by Reuters.
Reinsborough said multiple indications of oil in the Naingopo well will be further analyzed, and based on the technical data, the company plans to drill another well, Prospect 1, ahead of its Kambundu well.
“We are excited about the results of this well, which opens the play and demonstrates a working petroleum system within the Damara Fold Belt.
“The importance of finding over 50 meters of net reservoir with indications of oil in this well is significant,” he said.
Moreover, ReconAfrica faced criticism in 2023, according to the CEO from Namibian communities and environmentalists for years, for its exploration near Namibia’s ecologically delicate Okavango Delta, but the government supports the company’s continued drilling on the enormous tract of land it owns.
This discovery comes the same month after Chevron announced it found no commercially viable oil and gas in its exploration of Namibia’s Orange Basin in January 2025 and Shell disclosed it would write down about $400 million over an oil discovery offshore Namibia that it deemed commercially unviable.
However, Portugal’s oil and gas company, Galp, in December 2024 also found more light oil and gas condensate in the second of up to four wells within its current exploration and appraisal (E&A) program in license PEL 83 off the coast of Namibia, close to discoveries made by Shell and TotalEnergies.
Furthermore, businesses like Galp, Rhino Resources, and Azule Energy, a partnership between BP and Italy’s Eni, intend to drill exploration wells in Namibia this year.
The massive PEL 73 block is 70% owned by operator ReconAfrica, 10% by Namibia’s state oil company Namcor, and 20% by Norway’s BW Energy (BWE.OL).
