Tami Itembu, Public and Government Affairs at ExxonMobil and Production Namibia has said that the entity is still behind in its oil exploration and hopes that the government would offer the company more time to pursue oil.
“ExxonMobil is kind of behind. It is still early in the game in terms of exploration and it is not clear where ExxonMobil is moving towards in terms of drilling. We are still in the very early stages of analysis in trying to figure out whether there are viable prospects or not. The discoveries made by Shell and TotalEnergies make it more exciting and Namibia a more viable space to explore. We hope the government will be more understanding in terms of the time we need to keep on analyzing. We hope by the time we might need to ask the government for more time to continue with our analysis, they will work with us. We do want to continue exploring but we just need more time,” Itembu said in an interview with the African Energy Chamber (AEC).
She went on to say that there is a need for a learning curve in Namibia to understand the oil and gas market highlighting that the oil and gas industry has done a great job to come together through Namcor, the industry association, to educate the public.
“Over the past two years, the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson of Namcor, who were both country managers for different oil operators in the country, have run a series of engagement plans with various ministries including the Ministry of Justice and of Environment, to educate the citizens so that they can understand the process of oil and gas since the industry is still very new in the country. The majority of people in Namibia know about mining. It is interesting that a lot of people think exploration might take six months and production to start within three years, which is not the case.
“And as such, it is really interesting to share with stakeholders and citizens, the exploration process, the information about the capital risk and the intensity that oil and gas comes with, which is very different to mining. Recently, before this conference, we had a program with journalists because they are key to educating the everyday Namibian citizen. There has been a lot of talk and misunderstanding about the fiscals, the potential oil revenue, so it has been our job to go and make sure that the people understand the petroleum economics and what the fiscals will look like in Namibia. We have put a lot of effort into making the citizens understand that the discoveries are a blessing not a curse,” Itembu said.
Itembu also said that Namibia could establish itself as a global energy hub.
“We have everything going for us in terms of infrastructure and from a policy and regulatory process stability. We are already a gateway to a lot of landlocked countries in the region and we could become more innovative and more aggressive in making sure that we use our geographical position to be able to cater for these markets especially if we are talking about gas and the Southern African power pool. We are also in a good position because we are the epitome of the energy mix with a lot of the drive from the presidency on green hydrogen and oil and gas discoveries. I don’t think there is any country in southern Africa or on the continent that can really speak to that,” Itembu said.