Government is being assertive in ensuring the process of commencing with the country’s oil production is accelerated. This is according to mines and energy minister, Tom Alweendo, who said this is being done in collaboration with oil and gas industry investors to ensure that if all goes according to plan, Namibia should be able to extract its first oil within the next four to five years.
At a press conference held at the State House on Monday, the minister stated: “And if we do that in four or five years, that will be a record because we know of countries that have discovered oil and took 10 years to produce.”
This week’s State House briefing was aimed at government ministries and agencies updating the public on achievements and challenges in their respective portfolios.
Alweendo stated that because of increased interest in and attention to the oil business following recent discoveries, licensing has become an issue. He explained that some individuals or businesses are now trying to obtain these licences through unorthodox routes. “However, we will keep up our efforts to handle these licensing matters in accordance with the law and in the nation’s best interests,” the minister said.
The global supermajor,
Shell, in July this year stated it made a fourth successive discovery of light oil more than
270km off Namibia’s coast in the Orange basin. In March this 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) licence.
The well was drilled to a total depth of over 6000m 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.
Electricity imports
Additionally, Alweendo noted that Namibia is still importing an increasing amount of its electricity, and that the ministry is making every effort to ensure the nation closes this deficit. He pointed out that by supporting independent power producers (IPPs) and not depending solely on NamPower to be the sole electricity producer, government is attempting to close the gap. Currently, NamPower supplies 85% of the country’s electricity, with the remaining 15% coming from IPPs. “We must keep working to guarantee that more IPPs come online and that NamPower focuses on distribution. Furthermore, all the energy that we are adding to the system is renewable and comes from solar and wind power,” noted Alweendo.
He made it clear right away that the nation cannot keep adding renewable energy sources to the grid without first upgrading the entire infrastructure, as doing so could make it unstable and therefore unsustainable. For this reason, NamPower has included upgrading the grid as part of their current investment programme in order to absorb the additional renewable energy sources being added to the grid.