Namibia looks to acquire minority stakes in petroleum companies - Offshore Technology
Namibia looks to buy minority stakes in petroleum companies
Namibia is looking to take minority stakes in petroleum production companies, joining nations considering nationalisation of resources, reported Bloomberg News.
A major producer of uranium and diamonds, the country is also considering taking stakes in mining firms and establishing a minerals exploration fund.
The move comes amid surging concerns over the country’s key resources’ local ownership.
Namibia Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo was quoted by the news agency as saying to lawmakers: “We are making a case that local ownership must start with the state, which holds ownership of our natural resources.
“The proposed state ownership should take the form where the state owns a minimum equity percentage in all mining companies and petroleum production, for which it does not have to pay.”
Some of the nations, including Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Peru, Philippines and Zimbabwe, are looking to maximise the value of their mineral resources or contemplating enhanced state intervention in their respective mining sectors, partly due to surging commodity prices, reported Bloomberg News.
In March 2023, Reuters reported that Namibia’s state-owned oil company NAMCOR and its partners Shell and QatarEnergy made an oil discovery in the Jonker-1X deepwater exploration well in the offshore Orange Basin.
NAMCOR managing director Immanuel Mulunga was quoted by the news agency as saying: “We are delighted to announce this third oil discovery after the success of the Graff-1X and Venus-1X discoveries by Shell and TotalEnergies in 2022.”
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”