President Hage Geingob says Namibia anticipates specific results from the extensive offshore oil drilling this year. With its many mineral offerings, the country has been of interest to the mining sector and the world at large.
The government, in the meantime, has been assertive in ensuring that the process of commencing with the country’s oil production is accelerated.
Geingob stated in his New Year’s message to the nation that “as we look to 2024 and beyond, we are entering a year that promises the delivery of tangible outcomes which have been carefully curated throughout 2023”.
He said several uranium mines will recommence operations, with at least three pilot projects in the green hydrogen space to conclude construction activities.
Geingob, however, cautioned that for Namibia to seize the opportunities that are in line with the country’s ambitions and expectations, there is a need to redouble efforts to make this a better country.
Namibia was very vulnerable in the past years to commodity crises, drought, and Covid-19’s impact.
“Many Namibians will recall the difficulties we experienced over the past years, starting with a global commodity crisis in 2015, which led to protracted declines in government revenue, affecting the implementation of the ambitious development and infrastructure manifesto the government had planned to implement in the noble pursuit of prosperity for all,” the President reminisced.
Geingob further stated that Namibia is deliberate in using the interest in green hydrogen to stimulate other sectors of the economy and new adjacent industries, including logistics, agriculture and sustainable manufacturing.
Mines and energy minister Tom Alweendo stated towards the end of last year that if all goes according to plan, Namibia should be able to extract its first oil within the next four to five years, in collaboration with oil and gas industry investors.
The global supermajor, Shell, in July last year stated that it made a fourth successive discovery of light oil, more than 270km off Namibia’s coast in the Orange basin.
In March that year, Shell, QatarEnergy and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) successfully concluded operations to drill a further exploration well, Jonker-1X, in the Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL 0039) area.
The well was drilled to a total depth of over 6 000m in water depth of 2 210m.
Drilling operations established the presence of a reservoir with light oil, marking Shell’s third discovery in the area. Shell is the operator of PEL 0039, with a 45% working interest, together with Qatar Energy (45%) and Namcor (10%). PEL 0039 covers approximately 12 000 square kilometres in deep water offshore Namibia.