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Mitigating risk amid Namibia’s oil boom
Namibia has acquired some extractive industry expertise but the scale of investor interest in hydrocarbons means it needs to move quickly to develop bureaucratic capacity and institutional knowledge.
Huge oil discoveries in the deep coastal waters off Namibia over the last two years are generating a wave of energy investor interest in the country’s hydrocarbon reserves – the recent finds potentially turning it into one of Africa’s top petroleum producers in the coming years.
With an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil reserves confirmed so far, the southern African state could be on the brink of a potentially transformative energy bonanza, since oil prices are currently high and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Initial discoveries could double the size of the country’s economy by 2040, with oil production set to start by 2030. But can Namibia avoid the ‘resource curse’ that has plagued other hydrocarbon-rich African countries?
Read the full article on African Business.