O’brien Simasiku
Namibia is cherished by many countries over its recent oil discoveries in the off-shore coast including its touted development of the green hydrogen project, which will make it feature among leading energy industry players.
This was evident at last week’s Invest in Namibia Country Spotlight event, organized at the African Energy Week 2022, in Cape Town where a delegation consisting of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) made breakthrough presentations to market the country.
According to Africa Energy Group with major oil and gas discoveries in early 2022, Namibia is the most recent trailblazer among Africa’s frontier energy hotspots. “Home to co-located onshore solar and wind power potential, Namibia offers extensive opportunities in renewable energy, with the goal of adding between 3-5 GW of new solar capacity and deriving 70% of installed capacity from renewable energy by 2030,” it said in the statement.
NIPDB CEO Nangula Uaanja in her opening remarks said, “our ambition is to become the energy capital of Africa. When talking about the transition, there is room for fossil fuels and room for meeting net-zero. These are not mutually exclusive. We are committed to the needs of the environment, while at the same time meeting the needs of our people.”
Meanwhile the potential developer from Hyphen, Jonathan Metcalfe added: “Why Namibia? When it comes to cost-effective green hydrogen, the curve is much steeper than the gas sector. As a result, we need to focus on the quality of the resource and bankability of the project. This project is a combination of a high quality resource in a very stable country, with high investability. Namibia is one of the world’s lowest cost producers. This means a much lower deployment of resources compared to normal hydrogen or energy developments.”
Hyphen revealed plans
to invest $10 billion
While Namibia does not yet produce oil, its offshore basins bear an uncanny resemblance to Brazil’s prolific pre-salt oil fields and have yielded several discoveries driving further offshore development interest, said Energy Africa.
Earlier this year, both Shell and TotalEnergies made commercial discoveries in the Graff and Venus prospects, respectively, estimated to hold billions of barrels. “The country is also home to the Kudu gas field development and gas-to-power project, which is being developed by BW Energy to transport gas by pipeline to an 800 MW power station in southern Namibia,” it stated.
Further adding to the talk of the day, Petroleum Commissioner in the mines and energy ministry, Maggy Shino, said the new discoveries are at this stage just the beginning of an era, in terms of the potential for the hydrocarbons we have as a nation.”
“The geology of Namibia has been tricky. Our first well was a hit with Kudu gas, but the following wells were not a success. We have an environment with volcanics, which sent our investors on a goose hunt chase. Now, we have managed to resolve that puzzle and open up that play. Our strategy is to drive exploration so that we can replicate the success we have in the Orange Basin,” she added
