• Shell plans to launch an exploration campaign of around five wells on PEL 39 starting April 2026.

• Shell recently booked a $400 million impairment on one of its discoveries on the block due to commercial concerns.

• The PEL 39 partners—Shell, QatarEnergy and Namcor—seek to verify whether the basin holds commercially recoverable volumes.

The PEL 39 block in Namibia’s offshore Orange Basin has attracted strong industry interest after Shell’s successive discoveries. Commercial uncertainties and a recent impairment have, however, tempered initial enthusiasm.

Shell indicated in August 2025 that it planned to restart exploration on PEL 39, according to a statement cited by S&P Global Commodity Insights. New information reported by international media on Thursday, December 11, now clarifies the operational timeline.

The reports say Shell aims to launch the campaign from April 2026 and intends to drill around five exploration wells.

This development follows an impairment of about $400 million on one of Shell’s discoveries on the block. The company seeks to obtain additional data and assess the commercial viability of the resources.

Shell plans to focus the new campaign on an area first explored in 2021, where it made the Graff, La Rona and Jonker discoveries. Analysts cite geological challenges, a high gas-to-oil ratio and uncertainty over the commerciality of the finds.

Through this new phase, Shell and its partners—QatarEnergy and Namibia’s state-owned National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor)—aim to continue evaluating PEL 39’s potential and determine whether commercially recoverable volumes exist.

Shell is not the only multinational facing technical challenges in the Orange Basin. Reuters notes that TotalEnergies and Chevron also continue evaluation work in the area, where major discoveries coexist with non-commercial wells.

The Mopane oil discovery, where operator Galp recently transferred part of its interests to TotalEnergies, is also undergoing technical analysis regarding the gas share in identified volumes. TotalEnergies is set to become the operator under an agreement concluded a few days ago.

This article was initially published in French by Abdel-Latif Boureima

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum