The usually sleepy fishing and harbour town of Lüderitz is soon set to receive a rude industrial awakening stemming from development around recently discovered offshore oil and gas reserves and the ambitious N$10 billion green hydrogen to be developed in the vicinity of the town.
To cater for this imminent industrial development, the Lüderitz Town Council has stated it is ready to develop more land to cater for both industrial and logistics infrastructure that will be necessitated by the burgeoning oil and gas industry and its numerous support industries. In addition, the town council stated it is ready to provide land, some 20 to 25km outside the town, to establish much-need infrastructure to transport green ammonia, which is the ideal method used to transport green hydrogen in an easy, safe and cheap manner.
Responding to questions from New Era, Lüderitz Town Council spokesperson, Elwin !Gaoseb, explained that the current Lüderitz townlands encompass 1 700 hectares of which 119 hectares were allocated for industrial use.
Of this total land, the portions segmented for industrial purposes include
30 hectares at Lüderitz Extension Two, 25 hectares at Lüderitz Extension Three, 24 hectares at Benguela Extension Three and 40 hectares at the Nautilus Industrial Area.
“Council has undetermined land that can be rezoned for industrial use within the current townlands of Lüderitz, with the townlands expansion mooted for the development of a second note, approximately 20 to 25 kilometres east of Lüderitz to cater for the green hydrogen project as well as the oil and gas industries and their support services,” said !Gaoseb.
Meanwhile, oil companies offshore Namibia recently made a third significant oil discovery in the much-hyped Orange basin. These discoveries, of which the first production in expected in 2026, have been estimated in excess of 11 billion barrels of oil reserves that could generate around US$5 billion (over N$90 billion) in annual taxes and royalties for Namibia.
In addition, following government’s approval of Hyphen Hydrogen Energy’s Feasibility and Implementation Agreement (FIA) to develop, build, and operate the largest green hydrogen project in sub-Saharan Africa, this project is also expected to have a substantial developmental impact on Lüderitz.
The green hydrogen project will be situated in the Tsau //Khaeb National Park in the Namib Desert, making Lüderitz the nearest port through which green ammonia will be transported. Once fully operational, this project should be capable of producing two million tonnes of green ammonia annually for regional and global markets.
Green ammonia comes into play as the safest and most cost-effective way to transport green hydrogen over long distances. As such, ammonia can serve as a hydrogen and energy carrier and is already traded in high volumes worldwide. Currently, about 20 million tonnes of ammonia are transported by sea each year.
The advantage of green ammonia is that it requires less energy to liquefy and transport. In addition, experienced companies that safely transport ammonia as well as existing established global infrastructure make ammonia one of the best solutions to transport green hydrogen. Once the green ammonia is shipped, it can be split back into green hydrogen and nitrogen in the destination countries.
In fact, green ammonia is already the second most traded chemical in the world. Now, the town of Lüderitz is expected to provide land and services for the local storage of green ammonia before it is transported to regional and international markets.