ReconAfrica says drilling of the Kavango West 1X exploration well is going as planned. Its president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Brian Reinsborough, said they have put the final casing pipe at about 2,300 metres deep, just above the target rock layer called the Otavi reservoir.

The well is currently drilling into the Otavi carbonate reservoir, which is the main target in the Damara Fold Belt in the Kavango Basin.
Reinsborough said the company expects to drill a large part of the potential reservoir and then carry out a full check of the Otavi section.

He also explained that the Kavango West 1X well is testing a big structural area in the Otavi section, about 20 kilometres long and 3 kilometres wide.
Drilling went faster than planned in the shallow part of the well but also caused a delay while waiting for new steeling pipes for the last part of the well.

Drilling has started again and is back on schedule.
ReconAfrica expects to reach the total depth in the second half of November.

The Kavango West 1X well will go through about 1,500 metres of possible reservoir before reaching the total depth of about 3,800 metres.
Reinsborough, however, stressed any updates provided between now and the completion will only include an updated drilling depth.

ReconAfrica has identified over 19,6 billion barrels of undiscovered original oil-in-place, consisting of 3,4 billion barrels of unrisked prospective oil resources in the Damara Fold Belt from 19 prospects and 0,5 billion barrels of unrisked prospective oil resources in the Kavango Rift Basin from 6 prospects.

There is no certainty that any portion of the resources will be discovered or that it will be commercially viable.