36 wells drilled in Namibia

President Hage Geingob said since 1974, Namibia has witnessed more than 36 oil wells being drilled and today the country “is clearly at the cusp of birthing a globally significant hydrocarbon industry”.

“It is an opportunity that is impossible to pass up,” Geingob said on Tuesday while delivering the keynote address at African Energy Week 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Geingob described Namibia as a melting pot for hydrocarbon prospecting, with a share of 13% of all offshore rigs operating in Africa.

The oil prospecting has resulted in the Kudu gas fields discovered by Chevron Texaco in 1974, with an estimated 1,3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas 170km offshore of Oranjemund.

In 2022, Total Energies and Shell announced discoveries of commercial oil volumes to the tune of 3 billion barrels in Namibia’s Orange Basin.

“Affordable energy for all Africans is an immediate and absolute priority. African countries have been working to ensure that our countries have access to energy to industrialise, to grow our economies and become dealers of hope for the largest demographic on the continent – our youth,” said Geingob.

The event is being held under the auspices of “The African Energy Renaissance: Prioritising Energy Poverty, People, Planet, Industrialisation and Free Markets’.

It is organised by the African Energy Chamber, which is led by the controversial executive chairman, Cameroonian lawyer NJ Ayuk.

Geingob is scheduled to receive a lifetime achievement award at the event, which runs from Tuesday to Friday.

Ayuk’s alleged conviction for fraud in 2007, which involved impersonating a United States (US) congressman, remains a topic of debate.

Ayuk vehemently denies the existence of such a conviction, but court documents seen by The Namibian suggest otherwise.

“The chamber categorically denies that NJ Martin Ayuk, a European Union citizen, has ever been convicted of any crime,” Gradie Mbono, African Energy Chamber’s spokesperson, has said.