Description of Activities

Description of transaction: The Commission resolved to approve without conditions the acquisition by a joint venture company, (which will be wholly owned by TotalEnergies Holdings SAS and Vantage Drilling Investments Ltd), of the drillship named Tungsten Explorer. 

Acquiring group: The acquiring group is comprising firstly of TotalEnergies a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies, oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables, electricity. In Namibia, TotalEnergies through its affiliates is active in the supply and storage of speciality, petroleum and bio-based products and also operates in oil and gas exploration, operating two deep offshore exploration licenses in the Orange Basin. Secondly, the Vantage Group is an international offshore drilling company focused on operating a fleet of modern, high specification drilling units. Additionally, Vantage also provides management services to other rig owners. In Namibia, Vantage provides offshore drilling services through a registered branch of Vantage Drilling Africa in Namibia. 

Target undertaking: The primary target undertaking, Tungsten Explorer is a rig designed for deep offshore drilling.  

Relevant market: The Secretariat defined the upstream market being the provision of offshore drilling services and downstream market being the exploration of crude oil and natural gas.

Merger Determination

The Commission found the proposed transaction unlikely to result in the prevention or substantial lessening of competition; does not result in any undertaking acquiring or strengthening a dominant position in the market and does not raise any public interest concerns.

However, as stated under section 50 of the Act, this approval does not relieve parties from complying with any other mandatory statutory approvals that any of the parties to this merger must comply with under Namibian Laws.