Venus in Namibia: learnings from low permeability analogues in global ultra-deepwater

TotalEnergies is progressing the development of its giant Venus oil discovery in Namibia, targeting FID in H1 2026. This is despite highly complex reservoir conditions in water depths of around 3,000 metres. Venus’s reservoir is very low permeability; below the conventional threshold for commercial production in ultra- deepwater. The discovery is rescued by its light oil (45 °API) and its thick reservoir section. Globally, commercial low permeability reservoirs in ultra-deepwater are rare but do exist. Lens subsurface discovery enabled us to identify and analyse low permeability analogues within the outboard ultra-deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. The Paleogene fields of St. Malo, Julia, and Jack all house low-permeability primary reservoirs and have demonstrated that commercial flow rates can be achieved.