The Namibian Ports Authority (Namport) has entered into a tripartite agreement with Angola’s Sonangol and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) to establish an integrated logistics base in Namibia to support the country’s emerging oil and gas industry.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) – signed by the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Sonangol Gaspar Martins, the CEO of Namcor Immanuel Mulunga and the CEO of Namport Andrew Kanime, and witnessed by the Secretary of State for Oil and Gas of Angola José Barroso – is centered on Namport and Namcor readying themselves as entities to address future demands following the confirmation of oil discoveries earlier this year in Namibia.
As part of the agreement signed within the framework of the 3rd meeting of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation, Namport is expected to grant areas located in Walvis Bay and Luderitz that might be deemed suitable for the implementation of the collaboration to bring about full realisation of the agreement, which is expected to benefit Namibia’s oil and gas industry.
The three parties, through the agreement, will see Namibia and Angola through SONILS (subsidiary of Sonangol) realise positive bearings from Namibia’s oil and gas industry.
The logistics base to be built will be similar to that of SONILS in Luanda, although no timeline has been set.
“The signing of such an agreement places the Ports Authority’s aspirations into practice,” Namport CEO Andrew Kanime said.
Namibia’s oil discoveries are estimated to contain about 6.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable reserves, with logistics expected to play a key role in the movement of the oil.
Namcor and its partners, Shell Namibia Upstream B.V and Qatar Energy, are said to have discovered a working petroleum system for light oil in the Orange Basin, 270km from the town of Oranjemund, where drilling operations commenced in early December 2021 and were safely completed in early February 2022.
The company’s other partners, TotalEnergies, alongside QatarEnergy, and Impact Oil and Gas have also announced the Venus-1X discovery, located approximately 290 kilometres off the coast of Namibia, in the deep-water offshore exploration Block 2913B, which covers approximately 8,215km².
Namcor estimates that Namibia could generate N$91.2 billion (US$5.6 billion) in revenue for the country at peak production from its two oil finds, which have the potential to double the country’s economy, which Bloomberg estimates at N$200 billion (US$11 billion) by 2040.
Namcor through its subsidiary, NAMCOR Exploration and Production has also entered into an agreement with Qatar to support and develop a sustainable upstream oil and gas sector in Namibia.
