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Namibia’s recent oil discoveries could potentially place the country among the top 15 oil producing nations by 2035, the Prime Minister of Namibia said during the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference 2023 on Wednesday.
In her keynote address, Saara Kuungongelwa-Amadhila said, “In the last 18 months, two light crude oil discoveries were made in Namibia, namely Venus and Graff, in the Orange Basin. The Venus discovery alone ranks as the second largest deep water oil discovery in the world since 2015 and if proven together with the other oil discoveries, has the potential to place Namibia in the top 15 oil producing countries by 2035”.
She said Namibia is expected to receive 5.5 billion Namibian dollars ($300 million), the highest exploration CAPEX (capital expenditure) from Total Energies for appraising Venus.
She said the exploration could create employment for 4,200 people and the government is optimistic as there is “a high probability that expectations may be exceeded”.
“As a government it is our intention to implement governance structures that are responsive, progressive and fit for purpose. To achieve this, we are crafting robust legislation and policies, inclusive of a progressive tax regime and local content policy that maximise revenues,” she said.
Namibia’s state-owned oil company NAMCOR has made three oil discoveries recently. Graff-1X and Venus-1X discoveries were made by Shell and TotalEnergies in 2022 and the third was discovered in the Jonker-1X deepwater exploration well in the Orange Basin offshore southern Namibia in March this year with partners Shell and Qatar Energy.
Total's discovery was more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, according to a September 2022 Reuters report.
(Writing by Sowmya Sundar; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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