The African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) has admitted Namibia as its newest member.
Established in 1987, the 18-member organization serves as a platform for cooperation and harmonization of efforts, collaboration, sharing of knowledge and expertise among African oil producing countries.
The incorporation of Namibia as a member comes as TotalEnergies and Shell with its partners, including government owned National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) announced earlier this year that they had made “significant” oil discoveries off Namibia, which consultant Wood Mackenzie estimates could contain about 6.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable reserves.
APPO recently created a finance arm, the Africa Energy Investment Corporation (AEICorp), to facilitate the raising of capital for investments in the oil and gas sector in Africa.
This was after the reformed organisation realised that the global paradigm shifts in energy sources away from hydrocarbons to renewables will soon begin to impact on foreign direct investment in oil and gas projects, at a time African countries are still heavily dependent on oil and gas revenue.
The Ministry Mines and Energy says Namibia will also consider joining the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries if recent oil discoveries turn out to be significant from appraisal programs to determine their size to be carried out over the next few months.
