Mines and energy minister Tom Alweendo is leading a Namibian delegation to West Africa’s leading energy forum in Dakar, Senegal, from 1 to 2 September.
It aims to determine the future for African energy at the MSGBC 2022. A ministry official yesterday confirmed Alweendo and the delegation will join nations of the MSGBC basin, their African allies, international oil companies and investors who are convening this week.
The MSGBC basin is named after the acronym of the countries in which the basin (or more accurately a collection of mini sub-basins) resides, namely Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry. The basin also includes a joint maritime zone, which sits between Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, following a collaboration agreement between the governments.
According to event organisers, most notable amongst countries participating to explore synergies with their MSGBC counterparts is Namibia, which recently discovered an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil reserves.
The organisers added that minister Alweendo is joined by Namibia’s Petroleum Commissioner Maggy Shino, Namcor Managing Diretor Immanuel Mulunga, Mulunga’s personal assistant Rachel Msiska, Namcor Executive: Strategy and Business Development Shiwana Ndeunyema and Namibia’s Ambassador to Senegal Elvis Shiweda.
The event organisers added that Namibia has become one of the most attractive African nations for investment, thanks to regulatory reforms, cementing ties with a diverse slate of supermajors including TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, ReconAfrica, Eco Atlantic, Africa Energy Corp and Qatar Energy.
Earlier this year, both Shell and TotalEnergies announced two world-class discoveries a month apart in January and February, respectively. The former of these, Shell’s Graff-1, is estimated to hold 300 million barrels of reserves, trumped only by the latter – TotalEnergies’ Venus-1 field with three billion barrels worth of recoverable oil. Once confirmed, this will be sub-Saharan Africa’s largest ever oil find and TotalEnergies’ largest discovery of the past two decades, dispelling any uncertainty over Namibia’s paramount standing in the African energy sector.
Equally important, following in the MSGBC basin’s footsteps, Namibia is approaching a one third renewables share at 30.3% of total fiscal energy consumption, and whilst Mauritania lines up the world’s largest green hydrogen project. In this vein, Namibia is also pushing ahead with Hyphen Energy’s US$9.4 billion project.
Meanwhile, Alweendo is scheduled to speak at MSGBC 2022’s opening Ministerial Panel, along with the respective ministers of Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo-Brazzaville. The event participants are also scheduled to meet Senegalese president Macky Sall, to co-author the Dakar Declaration, which is a common African position on approaching a just and equitable energy transition.
– ebrandt@nepc.com.na