France's TotalEnergies on Thursday announced a "significant discovery" of light oil and associated gas off the coast of Namibia, saying it would start assessing potential exploration.

The discovery comes after the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned last year that all fossil fuel exploration projects must cease immediately if the world is to keep global warming under control.

TotalEnergies said in a statement that it had "encountered approximately 84 metres (275 feet) of net oil pay in a good quality Lower Cretaceous reservoir".

"This discovery offshore Namibia and the very promising initial results prove the potential of this play in the Orange Basin, on which TotalEnergies owns an important position both in Namibia and South Africa," Kevin McLachlan, senior vice president for exploration at TotalEnergies, said in the statement.

He added that there will soon be "appraisal operations designed to assess the commerciality of this discovery."

The French energy giant is the operator of the block with a 40 percent working interest, alongside QatarEnergy with 30 percent, Britain's Impact Oil and Gas with 20 percent and Namibia's NAMCOR with 10 percent.

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