Norwegian oil group Equinor has signed an agreement with Harmattan Energy Limited, a Namibian subsidiary of Chevron, to acquire a 17.4% stake in the PEL 90 petroleum exploration license, located in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia. The deal, announced on August 18, 2026, marks Equinor’s first entry into the country. Chevron, through its subsidiary, retains the role of block operator, referenced under code 2813B.<\/p>\n
A partial divestment of Chevron’s stake<\/p>\n
Before the transaction, Harmattan Energy held 52.5% of the PEL 90 license, according to the statement published by Equinor on August 18, 2026. The deal covers only a fraction of that stake, with Chevron remaining operator of the block after closing. Other exploration campaigns have recently drawn industry attention in emerging offshore basins, such as the oil traces recently identified off the Amazon coast in Brazil<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three other partners hold stakes in the license: a Qatari state-owned petroleum company, a company called Trago Energy, and Namibia’s state-owned petroleum company. None of these partners are party to the transaction announced by Equinor, which states that their respective interests remain unchanged as things stand, though no source explicitly confirms this. Closing of the deal remains subject to obtaining regulatory approvals and completing customary closing procedures.<\/p>\n Undisclosed amount and a prospect deemed drill-ready<\/p>\n Equinor has not disclosed the financial value of the transaction, saying only that the deal fits within its strategy of strengthening and renewing its international portfolio. The group points to the existence of a prospect it considers ready to be tested through an exploration well, without further detailing its geological nature or a precise timeline beyond the current year. Philippe Mathieu, executive vice president for Exploration & Production International at Equinor, is quoted in the August 18, 2026 statement presenting the deal.<\/p>\n The agreement was signed by Beatrice Bienvenu, Country Manager Namibia for Chevron, and Aynur Rzayeva, Namibia Asset Manager for Equinor, at a signing ceremony held for the occasion. The Orange Basin has already been the site of several hydrocarbon discoveries made by other operators on neighboring blocks, making it a region of major interest for the oil industry in recent years. Exploration results there have nonetheless remained mixed depending on the block, in a market context where oil prices stay sensitive to geopolitical tensions, as seen during price spikes linked to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n No reaction yet from the other parties<\/p>\n Neither Chevron, the Qatari company, nor the other license partners have issued a public statement on the transaction at this stage. Only Equinor’s management has commented on the deal, whose finalization now depends on Namibian regulatory approvals. A precise timeline for closing has not been disclosed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norwegian oil group Equinor has signed an agreement with Harmattan Energy Limited, a Namibian subsidiary of Chevron, to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,5219,184491],"class_list":["post-385542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-namibia","tag-namibia","tag-oil","tag-pel-90-namibia-stake"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117122114836280895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}