Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – Oil exploration company Eco Atlantic Oil and Gas is set to host a public hearing on 18 and 20 July for the Namibian public to listen, and make objections or recommendations, to the proposed plans to conduct further exploration drilling in the Atlantic Ocean off the Namibian coast.
The public hearing will take place in Windhoek on 18 July and on 20 July in Walvis Bay. The company plans to drill a test well in one of its exploration blocks in Walvis Bay Basin.
The hearings are part o the requirement for the approval of the Environmental Clearance Certificate application, which the exploration company needs if it is to get a permit to start drilling later this year.
“As operator on the PEL30 licence, Eco believes that working to the highest environmental and ethical standards is of the utmost importance. These public hearing meetings are essential to our progress and we look forward to presenting our exploration plans to the local community,” said Colin Kinley, the chief operating officer and director of Eco Atlantic.
“Going into these public meetings we are encouraged by the high-level activity within the Walvis Basin and the increased de-risking of the region through detailed and competent exploration. We are confident that we can successfully proceed to the next stage of delivering our first wildcat well on this block together with our partners Namcor, Tullow and AziNam,” said Kinley.
The company believes that it is sitting on an 882-million barrel Aptian/Albian source-fed oil target within a sand-filled channel fan system, in the Cretaceous sequence, within the mature oil window located in approximately 300 metres of water.
The company recently had its prospecting exploration licence for a different oil field block, where it is exploring, extended by a year to 20 March 2019. The company has about five exploration blocks in the Walvis Basin.
“We are delighted by the ministry’s continued support of our progress on PEL50, and the other blocks on the basin, and its confidence in our ability to further enhance the area’s prospectivity through exploration efforts. We are seeing an ever-increasing interest in the Walvis Basin in general from many industry players, oil majors and independent E&P companies alike, specifically in the Tamar Block,” said Gil Holzman, CEO of Eco Atlantic.