TotalEnergies starts public consultations on oil project

TotalEnergies has started public consultations for its forthcoming project in Namibia.

The consultations rstarted on Monday and will run until 6 May.

TotalEnergies – in a joint venture partnership with Impact Oil and Gas, the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) and QatarEnergy – currently holds an exploration licence for Block 2913B, situated offshore southern Namibia.

SLR Environmental Consulting, whose stakeholder engagement process is supported by Urban Dynamics, has been appointed as the independent Environmental Assessment Practitioner to manage the Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) application and to undertake a scoping and environmental impact assessment (EIA) process for TotalEnergies’proposed development and production activities.

In a statement announcing the start of the impact assessment, Urban Dynamics says TotalEnergies’ proposed development triggers a number of activities in Namibia’s EIA regulations which first require the company to procure an ECC.

Based on both exploration and appraisal results, coupled with ongoing development studies, TotalEnergies and its partners are assessing the feasibility of developing the offshore Venus field – approximately 320 kilometres southwest of Lüderitz at a depth of around 3 000 metres – for commercial oil production.

TotalEnergies plans to drill up to 40 subsea wells, install the necessary equipment on the seabed and moor a floating production storage and offloading vessel at the Venus field.

“Oil produced from this project will be transferred from the [vessel] to tankers for shipment to buyers, with offshore units supported by supply vessels and aircraft from existing onshore facilities”, reads the statement.

“Should the ECC be granted, the construction, drilling and installation phases are projected to take approximately five years, after which production is expected to commence and continue for an estimated 20 years or more.”

An ECC application has already been submitted to the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Industry.

Currently, the project is in the scoping phase, and the public – including interested and affected parties – is encouraged to participate in public meetings and open houses to provide feedback and comments on the proposed project.