The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Namibia strengthened oil cooperation ties in a virtual meeting held on Wednesday by the Venezuelan Ambassador Omar Berroterán and oil authorities from the two countries.
At the 1st Venezuela-Namibia Oil Meeting, the Venezuelan diplomat offered an overview on the bilateral relation, dating back to Namibia’s independence 31 years ago, when the country freed itself from South Africa’s ignominious Apartheid regime. Since then, Venezuela and Namibia have maintained fraternal relations and have relied on each other’s support in the multilateral arena.
Ambassador Berroterán highlighted the two countries’ strength in the mining and oil areas, which have contributed to the development of bilateral cooperation on the basis of complementarity and reciprocity, an interest expressed by their foreign ministers on different occasions.
On behalf of Namibia’s Ministry for Energy and Mines, Maggy Shino welcomed this first meeting to express Namibia’s interest and describe her country’s mining, oil and gas development.
Shino stressed that mining is Namibia’s most developed area, making it a big producer of uranium, diamonds and gold. However, the African country has seen little progress in the oil and gas areas. Namibia has a wide territory and the resources found in it are just a small sample of its potential.
Namibia’s oil and gas industry is in its first phase, although its first oil field dates back to 1974 as the only one in development for offshore production. A great investment is required to carry out multiple projects to cover the production chain.
In this regard, the Namibian authorities have a special interest in technical assistance and geological, geophysical data according to each prospection area for development in the international market and investments, and recognize Venezuela’s experience by expressing their will to interact in all the phases of oil and gas exploration and production.
Representatives of the state-run National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) stressed the importance of gas development as their country relies on gas to generate power and they want to diversify the different uses of gas such as liquified gas.
The Venezuelan authorities highlighted their country’s experience over 100 years in liquid and gas hydrocarbons, and the development of exploration, production, refining and commercialization areas.
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and ranks eighth in gas reserves.