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Namibia signs oil exploration deal with SA firm

Namibia signs oil exploration deal with SA firm

NAMIBIA on Friday signed a landmark agreement with a black-owned South African firm for oil and gas exploration along the Namibian coastline.

“The agreement includes the onshore Blocks 2815 and 2195 straddling across the border with South Africa and Namibia and the offshore Block 2816,” Mining Minister Erkki Nghimtina said at the signing ceremony with the Industrial Development Group. “It is the first time we have issued a petroleum and gas exploration licence to an all-African black empowerment company, which is wholly owned by indigenous Africans,” Nghimtina said.IDG chairman Mxolisi Mbetse, a veteran South African banker, said his company acquired a 70 per cent stake in the three blocks.”Two Namibian black empowerment companies, Cumoxi Investments and Knowledge Resources, are our local partners and hold the remaining ownership,” Mbetse said.”South Africa will run out of gas reserves by 2012 so we must secure resources,” he told reporters.Offshore exploration first started off the Namibian coast in 1968, leading to Chevron’s discovery of the Kudu gas field in 1973.Further exploration only took place after Namibian Independence in 1990 and two years later the first blocks for oil and gas exploration were awarded.Recent months have seen the country award several gas and oil exploration licences, mainly offshore.Licencees were BHP Billiton, Hunt Oil, First African Oil Corporation and INA Industrija out of Croatia.Nampa-AFP”It is the first time we have issued a petroleum and gas exploration licence to an all-African black empowerment company, which is wholly owned by indigenous Africans,” Nghimtina said.IDG chairman Mxolisi Mbetse, a veteran South African banker, said his company acquired a 70 per cent stake in the three blocks.”Two Namibian black empowerment companies, Cumoxi Investments and Knowledge Resources, are our local partners and hold the remaining ownership,” Mbetse said.”South Africa will run out of gas reserves by 2012 so we must secure resources,” he told reporters.Offshore exploration first started off the Namibian coast in 1968, leading to Chevron’s discovery of the Kudu gas field in 1973.Further exploration only took place after Namibian Independence in 1990 and two years later the first blocks for oil and gas exploration were awarded.Recent months have seen the country award several gas and oil exploration licences, mainly offshore.Licencees were BHP Billiton, Hunt Oil, First African Oil Corporation and INA Industrija out of Croatia.Nampa-AFP

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