{"id":20621,"date":"2024-09-26T20:27:48","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T17:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=20621"},"modified":"2024-09-26T20:27:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T17:27:48","slug":"namibia-major-fossil-fuel-and-renewable-energy-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=20621","title":{"rendered":"Namibia: Major fossil fuel and renewable energy hub"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Namibia has been attracting a lot of investment thanks to some promising oil field discoveries in recent years, accelerating the growth of its fossil fuel sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to plans for oil and gas exploration, Namibia has also attracted millions in EU funding to develop its renewable energy industry, particularly green hydrogen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A rapid increase in investment in Namibia&#8217;s energy sector could propel the south-west African country to become a major hub for fossil fuels and renewable energy, although, contrary to the hopes of environmentalists, Namibia&#8217;s energy minister said the country will not rush to achieve zero carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Which energy giants are investing in Namibia?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several major oil and gas companies are investing in exploration activities in Namibia following numerous crude oil discoveries in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>TotalEnergies and Shell have made discoveries of around 2.6 billion barrels of crude and hope to begin the country&#8217;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.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chevron is expected to begin exploration this year after signing a development agreement in the spring to acquire an 80% working interest in an offshore block in the Walvis Basin.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Italian oil company Eni and BP&#8217;s Angola-based joint venture Azule Energy will partner with Rhino Resources Namibia to carry out exploration activities in the Orange Basin.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Portuguese energy company Galp has already completed the first phase of exploration in the Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X wells and estimates that the Mopane field could hold 10 billion barrels of crude or more. In total, 12 major oil companies have shown interest in Namibia&#8217;s oil assets to date.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Earlier this year, TotalEnergies agreed to purchase an additional 10.5% interest in Block 2913B and a 9.39% interest in Block 2912 of the Orange Basin. It announced it would spend about 30% of its $1 billion budget on research and evaluation in Namibia this year. Total has been operating in Namibia since 1964 and plans to finally start producing crude from the Venus 1-X oil field in Block 2913B, which is estimated to contain 5.2 billion barrels of oil, by around 2029.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The image of public debt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Namibia currently has a debt of over 60% of its GDP. However, based on recent oil discoveries and the accelerated development of its energy sector, the country&#8217;s economy is stable and it is expected that the debt will stabilize in the medium term. Namibia already has a strong mineral export industry, earning revenue from diamond and rare earth exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, with greater investment expected to explore the country&#8217;s crude reserves, Namibia&#8217;s energy sector could overtake mining as the main economic driver. Namibia&#8217;s oil exports per capita will resemble a Gulf state in the 2040s, provided they are globally competitive which should be positive for the country&#8217;s debt-to-GDP ratios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Renewable energy sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to developing its fossil fuel industry, Namibia has also attracted investment to develop its renewable energy capacity. This September, the European Commission announced that it will provide significant funding to support Namibia&#8217;s clean hydrogen and renewable energy development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EU has committed $55.1 million to support Namibia&#8217;s and South Africa&#8217;s green hydrogen industries to invest in the production, transport and storage of the clean fuel. The EU and Germany also plan to provide $3 million in funding to Namibia&#8217;s Ministry of Mines and Energy to &#8220;help Namibia expand its renewable energy production capacity and increase access, creating opportunities for decentralized renewable energy solutions in remote regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A third agreement from Germany and the Netherlands will contribute $1.3 million in grants to Namibia&#8217;s Green Hydrogen Program. This aims to ensure that the green hydrogen sector is driven and regulated by an effective support mechanism. The recent agreements follow the establishment of a roadmap for an EU-Namibia partnership on sustainable raw material value chains and renewable hydrogen last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the promise of EU funding to help expand Namibia&#8217;s renewable energy capacity, Namibia&#8217;s Energy Minister Tom Alweendo has criticized calls from developed Western countries to go green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alweendo stresses the need for oil and gas revenues to support industrialization and address poverty in the southwest African country. This need is highlighted by many other African states, such as Ghana, who see the exploitation of their oil and gas assets as a means of achieving economic growth in an unequal world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Namibia has been attracting a lot of investment thanks to some promising oil field discoveries in recent years, accelerating the growth of its fossil&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,390],"tags":[5984,2391,25,4670,5982,5983,4477],"class_list":["post-20621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-politics","tag-debt-to-gdp-ratios","tag-energy","tag-eu","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-hub","tag-namibia","tag-renewable-energy-sources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20624,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20621\/revisions\/20624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}