Namibia is preparing an onshore petroleum supply base, expanded fuel storage, a petrochemical testing laboratory and modern seismic and geoscientific data systems as part of a government plan to ensure the country is ready for an oil industry before offshore production begins.
Industries, Mines and Energy minister Modestus Amutse said on Wednesday that his ministry’s 2026 to 2030 strategic plan was centred on moving Namibia from exploration to readiness as discoveries in the Orange Basin approach potential final investment decisions and first production.
“The discoveries of the Orange Basin have moved Namibia from prospect to priority on the global energy map,” Amutse said at the official opening of the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference in Windhoek.
“We are now approaching the decisive milestones: final investment decisions targeted from this year, and first oil before the end of this decade. Between those two points lies the real work, and it is on that work that my ministry is fixed.”
Amutse said the ministry’s objective was to ensure that the infrastructure and capacity required to support offshore production were established on land before oil started flowing.
“Our strategic plan for 2026 to 2030 carries one organising idea: to move this country from exploration to readiness, so that Namibia is ready onshore when production begins offshore.”
Amutse said readiness would require an onshore petroleum supply base that could become the logistics backbone of the emerging industry, reducing operating costs while building domestic capacity.
He did not disclose the proposed location, cost or construction timetable for the supply base.
The ministry also plans to expand and refurbish fuel storage infrastructure to strengthen supply security and establish a petrochemical testing laboratory to protect the integrity of petroleum products and government revenues.
Modernising Namibia’s seismic and geoscientific data systems is another priority as the country attempts to attract further petroleum investment.
“Investment flows to jurisdictions whose subsurface is well understood and whose data is credible,” Amutse said.
“None of this is glamorous. All of it is what separates countries that found oil from countries that were ready for it.”
Amutse also defended the government’s decision to move responsibility for upstream petroleum to the Upstream Petroleum Unit in the Office of the President, describing the restructuring as necessary to protect a strategically important sector.
“The placement of upstream petroleum under the Upstream Petroleum Unit in the Office of the President is not a disruption; it is a deliberate realignment to protect a sensitive and strategic sector, drawn from the experience of producing nations,” he said.
He said the new arrangement would remain accountable through annual reporting to the National Assembly and insisted that the State’s regulatory powers remained clear and unchanged.
Amutse said his ministry continued to hold responsibility for industrialisation, mining, energy and downstream petroleum.
The minister presented the restructuring as one of three areas in which government wanted to provide certainty to investors, alongside policy and fiscal certainty.
Amutse said the National Upstream Petroleum Local Content Policy provided policy certainty by setting out what the government expected from companies operating in the emerging petroleum industry.
“It tells you exactly what Namibia expects: Namibian employment maximised, Namibian suppliers prioritised, skills and technology transferred, and meaningful Namibian participation, ownership and financing across the value chain,” he said.
On fiscal policy, Amutse promised investors a stable, transparent framework, and said petroleum revenues would be managed for the long term, including through the Welwitschia Sovereign Wealth Fund.
“Predictability is our policy. Namibia does not move goalposts,” he said.
The assurance comes as companies evaluating Namibia’s offshore discoveries weigh investment decisions that could determine whether the country moves from successful exploration into commercial production.
Amutse directly addressed international investors over concerns that local content requirements could add costs or restrictions to projects.
“Local content, properly done, is not a tax on your investment. It is the durability of it,” he said.
He argued that an industry supported by capable domestic companies and workers would have stronger foundations for long-term operations.
“An industry surrounded by capable Namibian suppliers, skilled Namibian workers and invested Namibian communities is an industry with social licence, political stability and a future measured in generations.”
Amutse said his ministry intended to implement the policy in cooperation with investors rather than treating local content as an adversarial relationship between government and petroleum companies.
“That is what the Policy builds, and my Ministry will implement it with you, not against you,” he said.
The minister also warned local entrepreneurs that government-led opportunities through policy and industry programmes would require businesses to be ready to take advantage of them.
He pointed to the conference’s Local Content and Suppliers Masterclass, the second edition of the NIPDB Local Supplier Pitching programme and structured matchmaking between companies as practical mechanisms for linking Namibian businesses with operators and investors.
“To Namibian entrepreneurs here today: the masterclasses, the pitching sessions and the policy are doors your government has opened. Walk through them prepared,” Amutse said.
He also told international investors that Namibia remained open to the capital, technology and standards required to develop its petroleum resources.
“To investors: you have found a jurisdiction that is stable, serious and ready to build with you. Bring your capital, bring your technology, and bring your best standards, and you will find in Namibia a partner that keeps its word.”
Amutse said the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference itself had grown to more than 1,500 delegates and over 70 exhibitors, nearly double the participation recorded two years ago.
He credited the Economic Association of Namibia and co-organisers NIPDB, NAMCOR, the Hanns Seidel Foundation and SNC Incorporated with developing a platform that supported the government’s local-content objectives.
But his central message was that the period between discovery and production would determine whether Namibia was adequately prepared to capture the opportunities created by its offshore resources.
“The task before all of us is captured in a single sentence: to ensure that history records not merely that Namibia found oil, but that Namibia was ready,” Amutse said.
