Harmattan Energy Ltd., a Chevron affiliate, has received an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to drill up to 10 wells in Namibia.
The exploration programme includes drilling up to five exploration wells and five appraisal wells.
The programme also covers Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP) for future wells, well testing, and the plugging and abandonment of wells.
SLR Environmental Consulting (Namibia) (Pty) Ltd, which handled the environmental assessment, estimates that up to 150 local Namibians may be employed during the drilling campaign.
“Since the majority of the workforce will comprise highly specialised skilled staff that will come in with the drilling unit, there will be minimal demand for local content and local employment outside of the use of local service providers for logistics, supply bases, helicopters, refuelling, catering, goods, accommodation, waste management, etc,” the consultant said.
These positions include drivers, stevedores, ground crew, ship agents, security guards, logistics, and freight forwarders.
These personnel will be employed at the onshore logistics base or by the respective contractors.
“While some jobs will be newly created to meet the increased demand for services, many of these jobs will be existing but sustained through new contracts with Harmattan. Considering the inter-regional benefit, with people within the greater area being employed, and medium consequence, the residual impact is considered to be of moderate positive significance,” documents note.
The local spending for the 10 planned wells is expected to considerably impact the economies of Lüderitz, Walvis Bay, Oranjemund and Windhoek.
The impact is expected to last approximately three years, the estimated duration for drilling the 10 wells.
Despite the Namibian government approval, the oil major, has so far committed to only one offshore exploratory well in Namibia’s Orange Basin in block 2813B, which is governed by Petroleum Exploration License 90 (PEL 90), with the well expected to be spud in the fourth quarter of 2024.
