SBM Offshore is accelerating its efforts to establish a presence in Namibia, capitalising on the country’s promising floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) market.
The company, which designs and operates floating production systems for offshore oil and gas fields, is aiming to take advantage of Namibia’s favourable investment climate, as well as lessons learned from its successful projects in Guyana and West Africa.
Although SBM Offshore has yet to secure a contract in Namibia, the company has already appointed a local representative and taken steps to develop a skilled workforce.
Olivier Icyk, SBM Offshore’s Chief Business Officer, explained that the company is focused on building local capacity as part of its long-term strategy.
“We have hired six Namibian trainees, and five others have been deployed to our Kuala Lumpur office in Malaysia, where they are contributing to the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for TotalEnergies’ Venus project,” Icyk said.
He added that these trainees will return to Namibia, where they will support the operations of the FPSO in the future, assuming the company successfully secures a project.
“They are currently working on the FEED for the Venus project with Total in Namibia,” Icyk noted.
SBM Offshore is also working closely with Petrofund and local universities to support skills development and bolster Namibia’s oil and gas workforce.
Icyk said that SBM Offshore’s primary goal for 2025 is to become a key player in Namibia’s emerging oil and gas industry.
“Our primary goal for 2025 is to achieve success in Namibia and contribute meaningfully to the development of the country’s oil and gas industry, and to the nation’s broader development,” he said.
The company’s global ambitions are tied to strong oil demand, which is expected to remain robust throughout the decade. Icyk highlighted that deepwater assets will play a significant role in addressing a potential oil supply gap of up to 20 million barrels per day.
“According to various scenarios from the International Energy Agency, even in a scenario aimed at keeping global warming below two degrees, the shortfall in oil supply could reach between 10 and 20 million barrels per day by the end of the decade,” he said.
With deepwater production expected to grow by 33% by 2030, SBM Offshore anticipates being at the forefront of this shift, thanks to its cost-effective and low-emission FPSO models.
“Looking at our project pipeline, we expect around 40 FPSO awards globally over the next three years. Out of those, 14 will fall within SBM’s niche market of large, complex FPSOs. Of those 14, four are expected to be in West Africa, and we very much hope that some of them will be in Namibia,” Icyk added.
The company, which operates in 26 countries and employs 7,500 people globally, currently operates 15 FPSOs and one semi-submersible platform.
It plans to launch two new FPSOs this year, one for ExxonMobil in Guyana and another for Petrobras in Brazil. Furthermore, two more FPSOs are under construction for Exxon in Guyana and Total in Suriname.
SBM’s operations are mainly concentrated in the Atlantic Basin, with long-standing activity in Brazil, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, and Suriname.
