Maihapa Ndjavera
Namibia and Senegal joined the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation after discoveries of oil in the country. The move will help the country learn from member states and try to avoid the resource curse that many oil rich countries struggle with.
Mines ministry spokesperson Andreas Simon confirmed yesterday Namibia was given its acceptance certificate last week at the council of ministers ordinary session held in Angola.
Simon said: “Joining such organisations makes it easier to access markets, because Namibia will sell its product collectively. There are initiatives that help add value to products in the market and this is beneficial to Namibia as a country.”
He added Namibia will be able to grasp first-hand information on experiences learned from member states in an organisation and try to avoid many challenges in the new sector.
African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) is a continental energy organisation whose mission is to promote cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons of its member countries and other global institutions to foster fruitful collaboration and partnerships while utilising petroleum as a catalyst for energy security, sustainable development and economic diversification in Africa.
Deputy director of petroleum affairs in the ministry, Carlo McLeod said Namibia became a member of the APPO on 12 October 2022 and only got the membership on Friday.
According to McLeod, as a member of APPO, Namibia stands to benefit from cooperating among member countries and other global institutions in various sectors of the hydrocarbon industry: commercial, scientific, technical, technological, legal, fiscal as well as in the field of human resources.
“APPO also promote the development of regional markets and coordinated energy integration strategies in the continent; developing research programmes about the major challenges in the petroleum sector of African countries, advocate for economic development and market diversification activities by enhancing hydrocarbon sector local procurement, employment and gender diversification,” he pointed out.
APPO is also focused on the promotion of environmental protection and management policies and the use of international best practices, he added.
“Namibia recently made two meaningful discoveries and we believed that APPO will enable us to meaningfully engage with other oil producing countries in Africa and understand common challenges to our continent,” added McLeod.
Furthermore, energy specialist David Jarrett noted Namibia will surely reap some benefits from APPO and get insights into how the industry is perceived among competitors. Namibia’s membership, he said, gives access to leading avenues.
Namibia confirmed major light oil and associated gas discovery on the Venus-1X prospect, located in block 2913B (PEL 56) in the Orange basin, offshore southern Namibia. That confirmation followed Shell’s Graff-1 discovery in the same vicinity, although the volumes of oil and gas in the exploration areas have not yet been announced.
Last month, the multi-national United-States-based energy corporation, Chevron, reportedly paid US$100 million (around N$1.7 billion) for a stake to explore oil in the Orange basin offshore Namibia.
Online global energy publication Energy Voice reported Chevron invested after the US super-major acquired an 80% working interest in Petroleum Exploration Licence 90 (PEL90), which covers Block 2813B – about 200 to 250km offshore – close to the Venus and Graff discoveries by TotalEnergies and Shell, respectively.
The licence area is reported to be around 5 433 square km with water depths between 2 300 to 3 300 metres.
-mndjavera@nepc.com.na