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Beware of the oil curse, Nandi-Ndaitwah warns

Home National Beware of the oil curse, Nandi-Ndaitwah warns
Beware of the oil curse, Nandi-Ndaitwah warns

International relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah hopes the recent discovery of oil off the Namibian coast will not bring instability but shared prosperity to all citizens. The National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) last week confirmed a major light oil and associated gas discovery, this time on the Venus-1X prospect, located in block 2913B (PEL 56) in the Orange Basin, offshore southern Namibia. The confirmation followed Shell’s recent Graff-1 discovery in the same vicinity, although the volumes of oil and gas in the exploration areas have not yet been announced. The exploration area is operated by a joint venture group that includes Total Energies (40%), Qatar Energy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%) and Namcor (10%). 

Total Energies is currently drilling another well, Venus, in a nearby block. While hosting a United States’ delegation led by deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs Akunna Cook yesterday, Nandi-Ndaitwah said she has observed that when strategic commodities such as oil and gas are discovered, especially in Africa, it is accompanied by instability. 

“We are hoping that should the oil discovery come true, it will be exploited in a way that it benefits the Namibian people. As we stand now, our peace is very fragile when you have so many young people unemployed. We are happy to have oil, what we are hoping is that it will contribute to shared prosperity”, she noted. Cook is in Namibia with a business delegation from the US, who are exploring current and future opportunities for projects ranging from infrastructure improvements to green hydrogen and health systems advancements. Nandi-Ndaitwah said she hoped Cook and her delegation would engage some of the country’s young entrepreneurs because if they were not involved, the country might not achieve what it wanted. Her hope is also that Cook and her delegation and the Namibian functionaries will be able to identify areas of cooperation between the two countries. “We need to have functional ports, we need to have railway infrastructure. We also have to look into the issue of water. Namibia is known as a dry country; we need to look at how we can desalinate water from the ocean. These are some of the things we need to look at,” she added. Cook’s delegation includes officials from the US Department of Commerce, Power Africa, the American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa and major American firms in the industries of construction and engineering, energies and health. This is the first in a series of economic diplomacy visits the State Department will undertake to advance US trade and investment with Africa as part of the whole-of-government prosper Africa initiative. Namibia is Cook’s last stop on her prosper Africa economic diplomacy visit to the region, which also included Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

ktjitemisa@nepc.com.na