Galp seeks credible partner in Namibia

After having drilled five offshore oil wells in Namibia in little more than a year, Portugal’s energy giant Galp is seeking credible partners to explore natural oil depots in the Mopane basin in a €155 million investment.

Between January and March, Galp posted a net result of €192 million, a fall of 41% on the profits in the same period in 2024 that had stood at €325 million.

Galp argued that the disappointing performance was down to planned stoppages for maintenance on four production units in Brazil, and a fall in refining margins in the first quarter of 2025.

In a conference all with analysts, Galp CEO Maria João Carioca revealed that the projected amount of investment was around €100 million to €155 million. On the production side, the expectation remains that the Mopane fields could bring in 10 billion barrels of crude oil, although it is too early to say for definite.

Galp completed drilling at well Nº5 inn Namibia recently and a lot of the information is still being collected, compiled and analysed.

“In Namibia, well Nº5 was successfully drilled in the southeast region of the Mopane fields in a very interesting area for us. We are now in the process of integrating all of the data collected, and the next step will naturally be to advance with finding a partner, and we are already negotiating with various companies that have shown an interest, all of them totally credible”, he told the analysts.

He added that finding the right partner that would bring value would take time but would not delay Galp’s timetable.

“Let me be clear, we’re not procrastinating things, but we’re also not in a hurry. Our expectation is that we’ll be able to take a decision at the end of the year, but we’re not committing ourselves to a strict timetable”, said Galp CEO Maria João Carioca.