The Data Room

Rob Parker

May 05, 2025

On April 17,  Recon Africa announced an agreement for a joint exploration project in Angola with the Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis or National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency in a press release. 

It said that ReconAfrica entered into a Memorandum of Understanding Angola for a joint exploration project in the ‘’Etosha-Okavango basin’’, located onshore in southeastern Angola. ANPG is Angola’s national concessionaire and regulator.

According to reporting in the AfricanPress on May 4th, the Minuto Verde Association – Quercus Angola has voiced “deep concern” about the MOU between Angolan authorities and ReconAfrica for oil exploration, calling for “temporary suspension” of the agreement for an independent environmental study.

There seems to be no record of an “Etosha-Okavango Basin” anywhere prior to being discovered by ReconAfrica. This is similar to the ‘’Kavango Basin’’ which also went undiscovered prior to ReconAfrica’s 2020 marketing campaign. Neither of these  basins ever appears to have been referenced by any geologist who does not work for, or is contracted to, ReconAfrica. This raises questions about why these insta-basins seem to appear wherever the oil company operates.  

ReconAfrica’s marketing of the ‘’Kavango Basin’’ in Namibia illustrates how their promoters hyped this supposed basin. An excerpt from the Oil and Gas Bulletin in January of 2020:

‘’What Cathey saw in the Namibian magnetic data shocked everyone involved.

The data revealed to Cathey an incredibly thick (30,000 foot – 6 mile) Permian age sedimentary basin. Not just thick, but also massive—covering an Eagle Ford sized area of land.

In a phone call with me recently, Cathey was clearly excited about what the potential for a Big Discovery at Kavango:

“We took a look at the magnetic data and it’s some of the best that we’ve ever seen. We knew we could do a great job of interpreting how deep the sedimentary basin there would be.

“The first thing that really started jumping out was that you have a sedimentary package that could be up to 30,000 feet thick in that area. It’s flooded with all kinds of sedimentation, including a lot of marine shales, like at the Permian Age Karoo formation.

“It is a very deep basin, and it had never been drilled. Then we saw there is a well that’s a few kilometers to the east, that had actually encountered those Karoo shales, and they were just shallow.

“They seemed to be projecting right into the ReconEnergy acreage… and nowhere in the world is there a sedimentary basin this deep that does not produce hydrocarbons….”

I want you to re-read the last two paragraphs.  First, Cathey says there IS a well that hit oil shale, only a few kilometres/miles away. There IS shale oil in this area. 

Then he says this type of basin has ALWAYS produced hydrocarbons.’’

But there was no 30,000 foot basin and so far, no hydrocarbons, Independent geologists say those were cooked off millions of years ago. Given these facts, the Etosha-Okavango Basin is likely to disappoint. 

According to Africa Press, the president of the non-governmental organization for the defense and protection of the environment in Angola, Rafael Lucas stated:

“We want to recommend here [to the authorities] that they take into consideration certain elements such as the temporary suspension of the agreement until a rigorous, independent and participatory environmental impact study is carried out,” 

Lucas further emphasized that, at a local level, a monitoring group should also be created with representatives of environmental organizations, civil society, local communities and environmental authorities “to monitor all phases of the process” which is something the Namibian Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended in 2021, but did not happen to the detriment of Namibian communities.

Communities in Angola should be aware that this company has been accused of bribery again and again. This writer was interviewed by Canadian police about ReconAfrica’s corruption and bribery in 2022 which was reported in the Globe and Mail. There exists a real possibility that the company will just fence off their land and pay off leaders as the record suggested they did in Namibia. This is from an objection letter from the Kalenga family at the second drill site, Mbambi, in 2021. 

“We already had land rights and were in occupation of that piece of land by the time Recon came and started drilling for oil and gas extraction. We were forcefully and unlawfully evicted from our land.” 

 “I was not told that I would be affected by this development. My land was simply taken,” Andreas Mawano, a pastor and farmer at Kawe, near ReconAfrica’s first drill site told the Namibian Sun in 2021. 

Angola’s National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada’s ReconAfrica for hydrocarbon exploration in a 5.2 million-acre area of ​​the Etosha-Okavango basin.

Rafael Lucas, according to reporting, also expressed “deep concern” about the deal recalling that the Okavango Basin includes provinces of high ecological sensitivity, namely Cunene, Cuando, Cubango and Moxico.

The African Press stated that “ReconAfrica will have an 80% stake in the area covered by the memorandum of understanding, in the onshore Etosha-Okavango basin, located in southwest Angola, and Sonangol will have a 20% stake, with the Canadian company being granted exclusive rights for a period of 24 months.”