Orange Basin PEL 87
PEL 87 Prospectivity
The 10,970 km2 PEL 87 exploration permit is situated to the north and on-trend with a number of significant oil discoveries, including TotalEnergies’ Venus find, Shell’s Graff field, and Galp Energia’s vast Mopane discovery. All discoveries have encountered substantial columns of light oil, and in the case of Venus and Graff large quantities of associated gas.
Pancontinental Energy is in the process of interpreting and analysing the 6,593 km2 3D seismic survey that was acquired in 2023 and has identified a variety of hydrocarbon play types that are present within the permit area.
Only one exploration well has been drilled thus far in PEL 87; Moosehead-1X in the south of the permit. Moosehead-1X was drilled by Brazilian company HRT in 2013, targeting a very large carbonate feature upon a regional structural high. While the well did not encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons it did confirm the presence of the Kudu Shale oil source formation and also a thick and effective sealing formation immediately above Saturn-aged siltstones. The Kudu Shale is interpreted to be early mature for gas generation, indicating that the formation has been generative for oil within PEL 87.
Key aspects of the current interpretation effort are basin modelling studies and seismic Amplitude vs Offset (AVO) analysis of a number of AVO anomalies that have been identified within the 3D dataset. AVO studies can in some cases be an important derisking tool for hydrocarbon exploration drilling, and it is believed that at least the Venus and Mopane discoveries exhibit AVO anomalies as a result of hydrocarbon saturated porous reservoir sands.