France’s TotalEnergies has postponed production testing at Venus-1X, where it discovered a massive light crude oil deposit at Block 2913B offshore Namibia last year, because of operational challenges with its designated drilling rig.

The French major had arranged to use the Deepsea Mira, a semi-submersible rig owned by Northern Ocean (Norway), for the testing programme, and Odfjell Drilling, the Norwegian contractor hired to manage the unit, was due to deliver it to the Venus-1X site on May 29. However, Northern Ocean said in a statement on May 25 that “the rig has experienced some delays loading equipment and performing required maintenance.” As such, it explained, “we are now targeting commencement of the contract at the end of the second quarter” of 2023.

The delay of production testing at Venus-1X is expected to push back the start date of production testing at another site – namely, the Venus-1A appraisal well – by about one month.

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