• ReconAfrica targets 2028 for first oil from its Kavango Basin project, pending a final investment decision within the next twelve months.
• In December 2025, the Kavango West-1X well confirmed hydrocarbons — the first hard result after four years of exploration.
• The onshore push comes as Namibia's offshore sector draws major players: TotalEnergies, Shell, and most recently BP.

ReconAfrica, the Canadian oil explorer behind one of Africa's most closely watched onshore bets, is targeting 2028 for first production from its Namibian project. The timeline, reported on April 17 by Upstream Online, which cited CEO Brian Reinsborough, still depends on a final investment decision expected within the year.

The project sits in the Kavango Basin, a vast and largely unexplored stretch of northeastern Namibia. ReconAfrica holds a 70 percent stake in exploration license PEL 73, with BW Energy Limited at 20 percent and NAMCOR, Namibia's state oil company, at 10 percent. The license covers both the Kavango and Owambo basins across roughly 25,340 square kilometers.

The company has been drilling in the area since 2021, running multiple exploration campaigns to test what lies beneath a region that the oil industry had long passed over. The work has included seismic surveys and well tests designed to map the basin's hydrocarbon potential.

The effort got its first concrete payoff in December 2025, when ReconAfrica announced that its Kavango West-1X well had confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons — the first such confirmation in four years of exploration activity in the area.

The Kavango project is taking shape against a broader transformation underway in Namibia's oil sector. Offshore, the Orange Basin has drawn major international players after a string of significant discoveries in recent years. TotalEnergies and Shell have both announced finds there. The nearby Walvis Basin, also off the Namibian coast, is drawing its own crowd: last week, BP acquired a 60 percent interest in exploration licenses PEL 97, 99, and 100 in the area.

Abdel-Latif Boureima