Brazil’s Petrobras is expected to seek the entire 40% stake of Namibia’s Mopane oil and gas exploration block put up for sale by Portugal’s Galp, a director at the state-run oil firm said on Monday.
Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) has pulled out of the race to buy half of Galp Energia’s (GALP.LS) stake in a large oil discovery in Namibia that has attracted interest from top energy companies, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Galp saw its share price pop 20% on Monday.
Galp says it conducted testing operations at the Mopane-1X well in January and the Mopane-2X well in March, with, “significant light oil columns discovered in high-quality reservoir sands.”.
The company announced that the first phase of its exploration in the Mopane field in offshore Namibia could contain at least 10 billion barrels of oil.
Portugal’s Galp Energia, the company that reported positive indications of hydrocarbons from an exploration well in Namibia’s Orange Basin, says it has invested more than N$7,2 billion towards upstream projects, including an exploration campaign in Namibia during 2023.