Petroleum Commissioner, Maggy Shino, said the offshore Kudu gas fields are the only solution to Namibia’s dream of becoming an industrialised nation.
She said Namibia needs a dependable baseload power project and Kudu gas is the only project that can produce reliable electricity.
“Kudu gas is the only solution that can give us baseload power, and only with baseload power are you able to industrialise as a nation,” Shino said.
The petroleum commissioner said this during her address on Wednesday at the start of the two-day Namibia Oil and Gas Conference in the capital.
“When we are searching for these resources, we are looking at opportunities for us not only to have our lights on, but for an opportunity for an industrial nation. An industrial nation would therefore be built by making sure that we provide power that can be used to drive these industries,” she said.
Since its discovery in 1974, the Kudu gas field, which lies 170km off the South-West coast of Namibia and has 1.3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, has remained untapped.
Shino said the country’s gas reserve is anticipated to increase to 10 TCF as a result of the discovery of oil and the associated gas in the Orange Basin.
Therefore, she advised investors to look at the Kudu gas project with a fresh perspective.
“We therefore call upon you to look at the Kudu project now with a new vision and a new lens because now, with the additional gas reserve that we have had, it’s a project backed by infrastructure,” Shino said.
Significant gas has been found in the Graff-1, Yonker, and Venus-1 wells that have also yielded a huge volume of oil off the Namibian coast in the Orange basin.
As part of the government’s oil and gas strategy, a floating platform will be set 170 km offshore within the block owned by the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia and BW Energy.
“With this floating platform, we are going to build a pipeline that is going to move the gas from the field to Lüderitz in a port called Elizabeth Bay. We are going to put up a power badge that is going to convert the natural gas that we are going to produce into electricity,” she added.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency