Namibia advised to cool oil ownership talks

Namibia should first develop its oil and gas industries before demanding bigger stakes in its oil resources, RMB Namibia’s sector head of oil and gas, Angelique Peake, has advised.



Speaking on the Business 7 show recently, Peake said Namibia was not yet in a position to compare itself to oil-producing countries that have a bigger say in how their oil and gas resources are utilised.



“It is an interesting conversation, and you also can't compare the ownership amount in a block when you are a frontier, a brand new industry country, versus one that's been in the industry 30, 40 years, like Angola, Nigeria, et cetera, where the ownership is higher,” Peake said.



According to her, the costs of exploration were too steep, making Namibia’s free-carry interest advantageous, where it owns a certain percentage in its oil blocks, without the need for it to help fund exploration activities or production.



“You must not forget, at this point, the government has what we call a free carry. It means it's our resource, it is our country, hence we're going to take X amount of ownership in the block, but all of the money that's being put into the exploration, which is hundreds of millions, if not billions of US dollars, none of that they have to pay,” she said.



//q.my.na/VURC