The Namibian government will press ahead with regulations to ensure the country secures maximum benefits from its oil discoveries.
This was said by deputy prime minister and minister of industries, mines and energy, Natangue Ithete, at the 2025 Namibia Oil and Gas Conference in Windhoek yesterday.
He stressed that the country’s offshore resources must be carefully managed to deliver lasting gains.
“We must take a stand to manage [and] guide our offshore discovery jealously, and be a model country that translates oil and gas discovery into a catalyst for peace, unity and prosperity,” he said.
“Let our future generations sing songs of praise to all of us here today for putting in place legal frameworks and operational tools that will ensure there is no mismanagement of these precious resources.”
According to government estimates, oil and gas have the potential to generate up to N$7.7 billion annually in revenue through royalties and taxes.
“To Namibians, I say: This is your oil, your gas, your future – rise, prepare, and take your place in this new frontier,” Ithete said.
“To my fellow leaders, I say: Let us govern with foresight and integrity. Oil money can vanish in a decade, but nation-building lasts forever.”
He said Namibians would benefit directly from the country’s oil and gas wealth.
“Local content will be the heartbeat of this industry, our businesses, our skills, at the centre of value creation, every barrel, every cubic foot, must translate into jobs, infrastructure, and opportunities for Namibians,” he said.
“The revenues will not be squandered.
They will build schools, power our homes, and seed our renewable energy future,” he added.
Addressing officials, Ithete warned: “Colleagues at the ministries and relevant institutions, we have one chance to get this right, therefore, failure is not an option! We must succeed, so that the oil beneath our seas fuel prosperity long after the wells run dry.
If we fail, history will judge us harshly.”
Ithete said Namibia would avoid the pitfalls that have plagued other resource-rich nations.
“The ‘resource curse’ destroys economies, collapses institutions, harms the environment and leaves the people, the rightful owners of the resource, worse off than before. Namibia will not follow that path.
We refuse to become another cautionary tale,” he said.
Namibia is advancing a package of reforms in the mining, oil and energy sectors aimed at boosting local participation, ensuring long-term energy security, and positioning the country for economic transformation.
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has warned that Namibia will not tolerate any violation of its laws or policies in the development of its oil and gas sector.
In a speech read on her behalf during the conference yesterday, the president said global energy companies should operate with full transparency, accountability, and lawful conduct in the exploration of the country’s natural resources.
“We will not tolerate practices that undermine the Namibian people’s rightful share of the benefits,” she said.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the government will closely monitor all activities in the sector to ensure international oil companies and their contractors adhere strictly to the law.
Additionally, oil companies should ensure all development is beneficial to locals.
“Namibia’s natural resources belong to the Namibian people, therefore their (oil companies) development must always serve the public good, not private interests alone,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
Namibia’s exploration journey began in 1974 with the first well drilled in the Orange Basin.
Since then, 26 wells have been drilled, and over 160 000 line-kilometres of two-dimensional seismic and 74 000 square kilometres of three-dimensional seismic data have been obtained.
The breakthrough came in 2022 with multiple deep and ultra-deepwater oil discoveries in depths of up to 3 000 metres.
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