PARIS, March 6 (Reuters) - TotalEnergies and

Qatar's oil company on Wednesday said they would buy a stake in

a licence to seek oil and gas off South Africa as part of their

plans to develop the Orange basin area in neighbouring Namibia.

The French company will buy a 33% stake in the licence to

drill in offshore block 3B/4B, which extends over about 18,000

square kilometres, while state-owned QatarEnergy will hold a 24%

stake, the two companies said without disclosing the value of

the deal.

The remainder will be controlled by the existing owners of

the project Africa Oil ( AOIFF ), Azinam, which is owned by

Canada-listed Eco Atlantic and Ricocure.

TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy have longstanding agreements

to partner on exploration and production in Namibia, Guyana and

Kenya.

Block 3B/4B is located in South Africa's side of the Orange

Basin, just south of big discoveries by Galp, Shell

and TotalEnergies' own Venus discovery in neighbouring

Namibia.

"Following the Venus success in Namibia, TotalEnergies is

continuing to progress its Exploration effort in the Orange

Basin," said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice-President Exploration

of TotalEnergies.

Namibia, which has no oil and gas production, has become a

global exploration hotspot after deep water discoveries by

Shell, TotalEnergies and Galp in recent years.

Eco Atlantic CEO Gil Holzman told Reuters: "TotalEnergies

are the best partner one could have, they know the Orange Basin

better than anyone else, they have a drilling rig in the area,

and they are a great operator with a strong balance sheet."

The Orange Basin is largely unexplored, with dozens of

legacy wells drilled in shallow shelf waters along South

Africa's coastline.

"South Africa's side of the Orange Basin resembles those of

Namibia, it is highly prospective with at least two prospects in

the northern region of the basin potentially containing millions

of barrels of oil and associated gas," said Jonathan Salomo, the

lead geologist for the West coast at the Petroleum Agency of

South Africa.