South African independent Rhino Resources has announced successful drill stem test results on its third well offshore Namibia.
Volans-1X, whose discovery was announced in October 2025, “showed strong deliverability (5,300Barrels per Day BPD of condensate and 33Million standard cubic feet of gas per day MMscf/d of gas) with low carbon dioxide, confirming rich gas-condensate fluids”, the company said in a statement. The results confirm “rich gas-condensate fluids, excellent reservoir deliverability consistent with connectivity across the feature” the statement added.
Volans-1X was spud on July 31, 2025 on Block 2914A, Petroleum Exploration License 85 (PEL85), offshore Orange Basin, Namibia, using the Northern Ocean’s semi-submersible Deepsea Mira.
The well reached a total depth of 4,497.5 metres True Vertical Depth Subsea (TVDSS) on August 30, 2025, “successfully penetrating the Upper Cretaceous target, with partners declaring the well a high liquid-yield gas condensate discovery in excellent quality reservoir on 1 October 2025”.
Rhino operates PEL 85 with a working interest of 42.5%. Co-venturers are Azule Energy (42.5%), NAMCOR (10%), and Korres Investments (5%).
Rhino said the results validates its pre-drill optimism around Volans optimism, “with the flow data suggesting that Volans-1x well was drilled in a geologically contiguous reservoir system, which is very encouraging for our ongoing development planning purposes.
The test confirmed good flow rates of hydrocarbons, with liquid production in line with the condensate-gas-ratio range that we had previously guided.
“The data also indicates the useful calibration with the discovery at Capricornus, which has served to de-risk Volans and provide a far more holistic understanding of the reservoir distributions across the block”, Rhino said.
Capricornus 1-X, which was drilled on the same block between February and April 2025, successfully completed a production test across a light oil-bearing reservoir, achieving a surface-constrained flow rate in excess of 11,000Stock Tank Barrels per day (stb/d) on a 40/64” choke. The light ~37° API oil exhibited limited associated gas with less than 2% CO2 and no hydrogen sulphide.
These positive test results are critical in informing Rhino, in collaboration with our partners Azule Energy, NAMCOR and Korres on how to assess the next steps for appraisal, development and production planning across the acreage.
