Shell appoints new boss for Namibia

UNITED Kingdom-based global oil and gas major Shell has appointed Nigerian engineer Leye Falade as the country chairperson for Namibia.

According to the Africa Oil and Gas Report, Falade will have overall oversight of the multi-national’s technical, managerial and regulatory activities.

According to the report, Falade takes over from Dennis Zekveld, who has been at the helm since Shell returned for exploratory work in Namibia, one of the world’s hottest hydrocarbon exploration jurisdictions, in 2014.

Until 31 August 2023, Falade was the general manager in charge of production at the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd.

According to reports, Falade is an experienced senior business leader with a history of working in the oil and energy industry, who has worked across upstream and midstream projects in seven countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Africa.

Falade takes over the reins after the initial exploration work had been successfully done and the maturation phase had began.

Namibia has had a string of massive oil and gas discoveries in the last 20 months.

Shell and TotalEnergies have discovered an estimated four billion barrels of oil and gas in the country’s deep-water Orange Basin, which also straddles South Africa.

Shell was a player in the Namibian energy sector in the 1990s before exiting the development of the Kudu gas field and in the 12 years between that exit and return.

There were several dry wells drilled by several independents, the most notable being HRT, the Brazilian explorer.

Since arrival in 2014, Shell has completed three seismic surveys, analysed the data and launched a huge successful drilling campaign.

Shell’s major discovery with the Graf-1X well, located in Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 39 came in the first quarter of 2022, about 20 years after abandoning Namibia.

Shell operates PEL 39 with a 45% stake, 45% under QatarEnergy and 10% with the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia.
– email: matthew@namiban.com.na