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Explorers Curb 2016 Drilling Plans in Namibia on Oil-Price Drop

(Bloomberg) — The plunge in crude prices to below $50 a barrel has curbed oil and gas explorers’ plans for drilling in Namibia next year, the country’s petroleum commissioner said. “We have at least three majors which have indicated to us that they will be drilling in 2016, Immanuel Mulunga said by phone on Thursday from the capital, Windhoek. ‘‘I am more confident of three instead of five or six’’ announced last year, he said. While Namibia was interesting to explorers ‘‘way before’’ oil rose to $100 a barrel, ‘‘the current trend is worrying,’’ Mulunga said. Explorers are cutting back or delaying projects and drilling plans after crude plunged more than 50 percent since June. Basins off Namibia have attracted attention from the world’s biggest oil explorers on a bet that the southwest African nation’s coastal shelf may mirror that of Brazil across the Atlantic and neighboring Angola, the […]

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Namibia Expects Explorers to Drill Up to Five Oil Wells in 2016

Namibia sees as many as five oil exploration wells being drilled in 2016 as companies searching for deposits off the southwest African coast are undeterred by 19 dry wells. Tullow Oil Plc (TLW) and Royal Dutch Shell, which has two exploration blocks in the Orange River Basin, will probably sink wells in 2016, Namibia’s Petroleum Commissioner Immanuel Mulunga said. Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) may drill toward the end of 2015 or early 2016, he said. “In 2016 we might have three to five wells being drilled,” Mulunga said in a phone interview in Windhoek yesterday. “There could be some other players which might also drill during that same time,” he said, citing HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA (HRTP3) , Serica Energy and Chariot Oil & Gas. (CHAR) Basins off Namibia have attracted attention from the world’s biggest oil explorers on a bet the nation’s coastal shelf may mirror that […]

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