Namibia’s nascent oil industry is going from strength to strength following several discoveries that have provided great enthusiasm around the future of Namibian oil. The recent success of the industry is somewhat surprising considering the failed exploration projects of previous decades. Based on several new finds, energy experts believe that Namibia could quickly become as big as Guyana in terms of its crude reserves, which has gained it huge interest from local and international oil companies. 

There has been little interest in Namibian oil in recent decades due to failed exploration projects in the Southwest African Coastal Basin spanning Namibia and South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Chevron initially made a gas discovery in the Kudu gas field in 1974, but two failed attempts to find more led the oil major to give up. However, Shell and TotalEnergies both made significant discoveries in the Orange sub-basin in 2022, and the region is now thought to hold billions of barrels of crude, making it a hotspot for new investment. 

Namibia is one of Africa’s poorest countries, but, through the development of its oil industry, its natural resources provide massive revenues for decades to come. At present, several oil majors and smaller firms are battling for a stake in the industry, as many fossil fuel producers move away from long-established oil regions to newer fields where they can develop “lower carbon” oil projects, eyeing Africa and the Caribbean in particular.

By the end of last year, Shell had drilled seven appraisal wells and TotalEnergies had drilled three. While two of these wells were dry, the oil majors did find hydrocarbons, although not in commercial quantities. The firms carrying out exploration activities in the Orange Basin have mainly kept quiet about their findings in Namibia as interest in the region has boomed over the past two years. 

In January, the Portuguese oil company Galp started exploration drilling in license Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 83 off the coast of Namibia, close to Shell’s Graff and TotalEnergies’ Venus discoveries. Around a week into exploration Galp made its first find, announcing a light oil discovery at the Mopane-1X exploratory well in the Orange Basin. In March, Galp announced it had made another discovery in license PEL 83, offering greater optimism for the basin’s potential.