The Stake We Did Not Pay For
Namibia already holds a place on the cap table of its own oil. Whether that place becomes ownership in the fullest sense is a decision we still have time to make.
Namibia already holds a place on the cap table of its own oil. Whether that place becomes ownership in the fullest sense is a decision we still have time to make.
In the closing months of this year, TotalEnergies is expected to decide whether to build the Venus field. If it proceeds, and if the schedule is maintained, Namibia becomes an oil producer by 2029 and seven years after the first well, we are expected to discover what lies beneath the Orange Basin.
More than 11 billion barrels of oil in place have been identified off our coast. The national conversation has settled, understandably, on how much money will come. The better question is what we will own when it does?
Our national oil company holds 10% of the licence containing Venus, 10 and 15% in two neighbouring blocks, and 5% of the Kudu gas field. In a frontier province that has drawn some of the largest energy companies in the world, a Namibian entity sits in every one of those rooms, which is neither nothing nor inevitable.
