TotalEnergies has picked the offshore rig it will use to drill a strategically important exploration well this year in the East Mediterranean, Upstream understands.

The bulk of the French supermajor’s 2023 exploration budget is dedicated to establishing the size of its potentially enormous Venus oil discovery in Namibia’s Orange basin.

However, the company remains keen to drill critical prospects, in Suriname for example, that are big enough to make an impact in its proven-plus-probable resource base.