Namport is set to double the Luderitz port’s cargo handling capacity from three to six million tonnes a year in the first phase of its expansion project to support investments in green energy, oil and gas.
This was recently revealed by Namport port engineer Elzevir Gelderbloem who further highlighted the port’s strategic location makes it an ideal hub for oil, gas and green hydrogen production in Namibia, which is expected to attract more businesses and investments in various sectors
The infrastructural development plans for Lüderitz Bay will expand the port’s capacity to keep up with the current and future cargo volumes, as well as new industries such as green hydrogen, oil and gas.
This will alleviate increasing pressure on the current facility’s physical capacity within Robert Harbour to accommodate dry bulk, break bulk and containerised cargo as well as increased logistics services to the offshore oil and gas operations.
Expansion plans for Robert Harbour itself are at an advanced stage but environmental impact assessment studies are ongoing, and no work will commence until all required approvals are in place.
Should all approvals be obtained in time, phase one of the expansion plans may be realised by 2026/7, as reported by Freight News.
Longer-term plans for the Port of Lüderitz are focused around a new deepwater section of the port at Angra Point in the adjacent bay, which will be able to accommodate a number of terminals.
The first will be a green ammonia export terminal which could be realised as early as 2028 – a development which in itself will require extensive project cargo support.
Future terminals at Angra Point will be driven by demand over the next 30 years or more.
A formal environmental impact assessment study must be completed before work can start on the proposed terminal in the environmentally sensitive area.
“Namport respects the significance of any and all national heritage sites and will not undertake any project that will significantly negatively impact on any such sites located within its project areas.
“With the Port of Lüderitz Robert Harbour extension being situated next to Shark Island, the potential negative impacts to Shark Island will be studied and investigated comprehensively by independent parties – and all those affected, such as the local communities, will be extensively consulted,” Elzevir Gelderbloem was quoted saying.
For three years now Lüderitz has been a beacon of hope for Namibia – and for the European economy. The reason is green hydrogen. At the 2021 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Namibia’s President Hage Geingob announced plans to develop an area twice the size of Luxembourg for the production of green hydrogen. The aim was ‘to change the lives of many in our country, in the region and indeed the world,’ Geingob said later. Lüderitz is set to become nothing less than a model for equitable cooperation between Global North and Global South.
The region offers some of the best conditions in the world for generating electricity from wind power and solar energy – and therefore for climate-friendly hydrogen production. As a first step, the new plant is expected to be producing 300,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year within five years at the latest – around one tenth of Germany’s forecast annual demand for 2030.
To cater for this imminent industrial development, the Lüderitz Town Council has stated it is ready to develop more land to cater for both industrial and logistics infrastructure that will be necessitated by the burgeoning oil and gas industry and its numerous support industries. In addition, the town council stated it is ready to provide land, some 20 to 25km outside the town, to establish much-need infrastructure to transport green ammonia, which is the ideal method used to transport green hydrogen in an easy, safe and cheap manner.