Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is championing the development of a domestic oil refinery as part of a comprehensive national strategy to maximize economic benefits from newly discovered energy resources and boost local participation in the rapidly expanding sector. Speaking at the seventh Namibia International Energy Conference, she emphasized that “local content also includes value addition such as developing downstream capacity and infrastructure like a refinery.”
The President highlighted the country’s exceptionally favorable petroleum fiscal regime and incentives, positioning Namibia as one of Africa’s most attractive investment destinations for energy development. “Our goal is to export power, strategic energy commodities, and knowledge partnerships, while promoting regional integration and helping reshape intra-African trade through energy-led industrialisation,” she stated.
African Energy Chamber chairman NJ Ayuk delivered a passionate address at the conference, urging Namibia to aggressively pursue hydrocarbon development while ensuring Namibian participation in the industry. “Produce every drop of hydrocarbons you can find and better the life of your people, and I urge the industry to do one thing and one thing only — drill, baby, drill,” Ayuk declared, while emphasizing that local content must be “part and parcel” of any development.
Progress is already underway toward realizing these ambitions, with Namibian company ISF Trading Enterprises planning a substantial 300,000-barrel-per-day modular refinery at Walvis Bay. The facility will initially process imported crude before transitioning to locally produced oil by 2027-2028 as Namibia’s production ramps up. The project includes construction of extensive storage infrastructure, featuring a 573,000m³ crude storage capacity across 12 tanks and 145,000m³ refined product storage capacity.
Source: namibian.com.na
