Discovered in 1974, the license has been held by a number of companies including
Royal Dutch Shell,
Chevron Texaco and Energy Africa. In 2004,
Tullow Oil acquired Energy Africa for US$570 million and with its 90% interest in the license. Later Tullow Oil sold 20% of the project to Itochu. The remaining 10% is held by Namibian state oil company Namcor. On Tuesday, 18 September 2007, shares of Tullow Oil declined by more than 3.0% after the group announced that it had to abandon the Kudu-8 exploration well offshore Namibia and that a second well planned nearby won't be drilled. In 2010, Namcor and Russian gas company
Gazprom agreed to establish a special purpose company to take a majority stake in the Kudu gas field. In 2017, BW Kudu, a subsidiary of
BW Offshore, entered into a Farm-Out Agreement for a 56% stake of the Kudu license. Namcor holds the remaining 44% stake in the license. ==Reserves==