By Adewale Sanyaolu
Namibia’s energy sector is experiencing rapid growth, driven by significant oil discoveries and investments in green hydrogen.
Major oil companies which included; TotalEnergies and Shell are actively exploring and developing Namibia’s offshore oil reserves.
The EU is providing substantial funding to support Namibia’s green hydrogen industry and renewable energy expansion, while the country’s energy minister emphasizes the importance of oil and gas revenues for economic development and poverty reduction.
Namibia is attracting investment left, right and centre thanks to some promising oil discoveries in recent years, accelerating the growth of its burgeoning fossil fuels sector. In addition to plans for oil and gas exploration, Namibia has also attracted millions in funding from the EU to develop its renewable energy industry, particularly green hydrogen. The rapid rise in investments in Namibia’s energy sector could propel the southwest African country to become a major fossil fuel and renewable energy hub, although, contrary to the hopes of environmentalists, Namibia’s energy minister has said the country will not be rushed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.
Several oil and gas majors are investing in exploration activities in Namibia following numerous crude discoveries in recent years. TotalEnergies and Shell have made discoveries of an estimated 2.6 billion barrels of crude and hope to launch the country’s first production operations by the end of the decade. Discoveries have been made in the Orange Basin as well as the Luderitz, Kavango and Walvis basins, which have attracted more oil companies to the southwest African country.
Chevron is expected to commence exploration this year after signing a development deal in the spring for it to take an 80 percent operating working interest in an offshore block in the Walvis Basin. Italy’s oil major Eni and BP’s joint venture Azule Energy, based in Angola, will work with Rhino Resources Namibia to carry out exploration activities in the Orange Basin.
The Portuguese energy firm Galp has already completed the first phase of exploration on its Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X wells and estimates the Mopane field could hold 10 billion barrels of crude or more. In total, 12 oil majors have shown interest in Namibia’s oil assets to date.