In a bit of political theatre tinged with high stakes for Namibia’s future, the government has proposed major amendments to the country’s oil-and-gas legal framework that will shift key decision-making powers from the energy ministry into the office of the president and a new upstream petroleum unit housed under it.
According to Defence and Veterans Affairs Minister Frans Kapofi (also acting minister for industries, mines and energy), the draft bill aims at “the transfer of certain powers” from the minister to the president and the head of the newly formed Directorate of Upstream Petroleum in the Presidency.
Namibia has in recent years become one of the most promising exploration frontiers in Africa with heavyweight international oil-and-gas players such as TotalEnergies, Shell, BP and Galp all vying for acreage off Namibia’s Atlantic coast.
The government says the reforms are prompted by the urgent need to modernise the outdated 1991 Petroleum Act in light of the “recent world-class oil discoveries in our offshore basins”, as Kapofi put it.
But the move is raising serious governance questions. Former Prime Minister Nahas Angula warned the “president is taking a big risk … issuing such licences directly may erode oversight and accountability.”
From an investor’s standpoint, the centralization may offer faster decision-making and a clearer single interface for exploration consortia. Yet from a transparency and public-governance perspective, critics fear that shifting licensing, renewal and production-approval powers into the presidency could weaken parliamentary scrutiny and professional technical vetting.
For Namibia, a country with only around 3 million people but sitting on what may become a large offshore resource base striking the balance between attracting investment and safeguarding proper resource governance is vital. The final shape of the bill, expected in parliament in the coming weeks, will be closely watched both locally and internationally.