Minister of Mines and Energy Tom Alweendo says his Ministry is actively exploring for oil and gas to become self-reliant in energy supply.
This comes as Namibia is set to witness unprecedented growth across the oil and gas industries owing to sizable discoveries made in 2022 and 2023.
“Whilst supplying the petroleum products from international markets, the Ministry is also busy exploring for oil and gas on the Namibian continental shelf to enable Namibia to be self-reliant in terms of domestic energy supply through becoming a petroleum-producing nation,” he said.
This comes as together with Shell, Total Energies, Namcor and Qatar Energy, the government has discovered a large accumulation of light oil in the Orange basin in three separate discoveries.
Additionally, Alweendo expressed that “more energy will be spent on ensuring that we drive more exploration activities to other basins both onshore and offshore to ensure that the success we have achieved in the Orange Basin is replicated in other sedimentary basins.”
Alweendo said in order to undertake the mandate of ensuring the security of petroleum supply in Namibia, the Petroleum Affairs Directorate has an operational budget of N$12.6 million allocation for the financial year 2023/2024.
“With petroleum products being the highest energy source by occupying 65% of Namibia’s total energy consumed, the Ministry is committed to ensuring the security of energy supply through effective administration of the petroleum products importations, adequate mechanism for petroleum products distributions through effective licensing systems and ensuring that the products are sold at market-related pump prices,” he said.
The Ministry aims to regulate the petroleum sector to guard against market instability risks and create value for society.
Alweendo said this will be done with the objective of creating value for society, but additional works need to be conducted in the form of an appraisal campaign.
“At the moment and for the next 6-8 months the Ministry together with the JV partners will be drilling up to 4 wells in the Orange basin to appraise these discoveries and establish commerciality. In addition to the appraisal works being undertaken, the new finds have also amplified the outlook on natural gas developments in the country,” he said.
To that effect, plans are also currently underway to finalise the new Field Development Plan (FDP) for the development of the Kudu Gas Field.
“A large portion of our efforts will be focused towards ensuring that the country is prepared for meaningful participation in this upcoming industry and that all elements are in place to ensure that value is captured which will contribute meaningfully to the Namibian economy,” Alweendo added.
Additionally, the Minister shared that Petrofund is providing training to the industry, while programmes are being implemented to build internal capacity for effective administration and regulation.
“The Ministry sent young Namibians to Equatorial Guinea for skills development and capacity building. Through these interventions of reliance on our bilateral engagements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs), the Ministry will continue to build the desired capacity needed for the sector.”
According to Alweendo, the Ministry aims to facilitate the fruition of investment decisions to regulate and retain exploration investors and create a conducive environment for new investments.
“The current operational mode has created a window of opportunity for internal research and development that will ensure that the industry continues to benefit. Creating a legal framework that enables building the economy, the workforce and building industry capacity is also amongst the focus that the Ministry is trying to achieve for the oil industry during this financial year,” he said.
Namibia, according to data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, consumes 90 million litres of fuel per month on average–60 million litres of diesel and 30 million litres of petrol.
