Alweendo urges developers to fast-track projects

Namibia may soon become oil-exporting country
Namibia's mining minister Tom Alweendo says efforts must be made to fast-track the country's prospective oil and gas projects.
Ogone Tlhage
  • 1 Week Ago
Mines minister Tom Alweendo has urged oil majors Shell and TotalEnergies to fast-track the development of their projects to enable Namibia’s nascent oil and gas industry to flourish.

He made the comments at the Namibia International Energy Conference, which is currently underway at Droombos outside Windhoek.

Oil majors Shell and TotalEnergies first announced making significant discoveries in the country in 2022.

TotalEnergies made an oil discovery in February 2022 in the Venus well in Namibia's Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 56, which analysts at Barclays estimate holds three billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Shell reported discoveries in the Graff, La Rona and Jonker wells in PEL 39, which together are estimated to hold 1.7 billion boe, according to Barclays.

“To those who have made commercial discoveries, we want you to fast-track field development for all discoveries. Although I consider myself a pragmatist, the fact is that we need the resources out of the ground for the oil and gas industry to flourish,” he said.

Alweendo further called on the two companies to develop the projects as soon as there was confirmation that they are commercially viable.

“We need to develop plans now to speed up production as soon as the discoveries are determined commercially viable,” Alweendo said.



Smart collaboration

Oil and gas companies were also urged to work closely with the government and local companies to bring their projects to fruition, and ignore any negative comments on Namibia’s ability to deliver.

“I have a specific message for our esteemed investors. We have accepted you to collaborate with us and, in return, we expect that you earn your licence to operate. I ask that you tune out the barrage of noise about how Namibia lacks the necessary expertise or capital or infrastructure to build a successful oil and gas industry,” Alweendo said.

“We want you to adopt a tenacious persistence to make things happen and use your unique perspectives to develop Namibia-specific strategies that will succeed,” he added.

Oil and gas companies were further urged to incorporate a local content policy into their capacity-building initiatives.

“For the oil companies to play their role regarding Namibian content, it will be necessary and a requirement for them to submit to us their annual capacity-building and Namibian content plans,” the minister said.

While conceding that the policy was still under development, he emphasised that it was a necessary intervention.

“I am alive to the fact that the local content policy is still in a draft form. However, that is not a good reason for the oil companies not to have their Namibian content plans in place."