Lagos — Rhino Resources Namibia Ltd. has announced a major gas condensate find at the Volans-1X exploration well located in Block 2914A, off the coast of Namibia’s Orange basin. This discovery marks the company’s third straight hydrocarbon find within Petroleum Exploration License 85 (PEL 85), in which Rhino has a 42.5% operating stake.

The Volans-1X well, drilled on July 31, 2025, using the Northern Ocean’s Deepsea Mira semi-submersible, achieved a total depth of 4,497.5 meters on August 30. Logging activities revealed 26 meters of net pay within high-quality Upper Cretaceous reservoirs, with no signs of water presence. Hydrocarbon samples showed a condensate-to-gas ratio higher than 140 and liquids with around 40° API gravity.

Ongoing laboratory testing of sidewall core samples and collected materials has yielded initial findings that indicate outstanding reservoir characteristics.

Collaborators in PEL 85 are Azule Energy (42.5%), Namibia’s government-owned NAMCOR (10%), and Korres Investments (5%). The partnership has also drilled the Sagittarius-1X and Capricornus-1X wells, both of which discovered hydrocarbons earlier this year.

Travis Smithard, CEO of Rhino, referred to the Volans-1X outcome as uncovering a new play fairway inside the license, mentioning that the find highlights “different reservoir and fluid types” in contrast to earlier wells. He mentioned that the joint venture will incorporate these results into broader basin prospectivity analyses to evaluate development opportunities.

The Deepsea Mira platform has been moved to a new drilling site as testing and evaluation remain ongoing for Volans-1X. This discovery boosts momentum for Namibia’s Orange basin, which has experienced several notable discoveries in recent years, attracting more attention from global operators.