Energy Africa Wants Kudu Gas Field

Energy Africa in Cape Town on Tuesday said the oil company wanted to assume a100 % interest and operatorship of Namibia’s Kudu gas field. Chevron Texaco withdrew from the Kudu gas field project last week. While the project might not fit into Chevron Texaco’s strategy in West Africa, it remained a very important project for Energy Africa, the company said in a press release.

"Energy Africa remains very positive about the future of the Kudu gas field project and is committed to continuing discussions with various stakeholders with the objective of making a decision on the development of Kudu early next year. These discussions have already reached an advanced stage," the statement said.

The withdrawal enabled the Namibian government and Energy Africa to pursue development of the gas from the field, the minister of mines and energy, Dr Nickey Iyambo noted. The Kudu gas field is located in Licence Area 005, Block 2814A, approximately 170 km offshore from Oranjemund.

Employees in the Namibian diamond sector are facing difficult times this year. After the decline of Namco, which was hit by losing a diamond recovery vessel, Namdeb said the strong Rand/US dollar exchange rate was adversely affecting the company. Apart from not having financial reserves anymore to fund new diamond-mining projects, Namdeb, 50% government-owned and a subsidiary of De Beers, announced it has to reduce labour costs. Voluntary retrenchment packages were offered to staff at the end of last week. This decision was made public on Monday. It could not be established how many employees will take the offer. Last month it became evident that Namdeb is facing difficulties when the additional budget tabled in the National Assembly revealed that N$ 1,2 billion less revenue from diamond exports had to be expected for the current financial year.

Members of the Namibian public objecting to the proposed plans to establish a residential area at Rand Rifles along the coast between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund can do so in writing until 12h00 Friday, 19 December at the Walvis Bay municipality. The area is the breeding ground of various marine bird species, especially the Damara tern, which is on the international Red List, meaning it is threatened by extinction. The objections against this development must be addressed to Mr T. van Zyl. The City intends to sell 27.5 ha of a total of 118 ha to the tune of N$ 2,75 million. The developer must contribute N$ 500 000 to the provision of bulk services plus another N$ 100 000 towards landscaping and the establishment of a "Green Belt". Details of the proposed sale are lying for inspection at Room 45 of the municipal offices in Kuisebmond until 12h00 Tuesday, 16 December. Mr van Zyl can be contacted at 064-201 3235.

Namibian customers will soon be able to enjoy standardised services with regard to electricity supply and distribution. With the ongoing restructuring process of the electricity sector, Namibia has been divided into five regional electricity distribution zones (RED’s) and private companies have been established to take over electricity supply. They have to adhere to certain standards with regard to technical equipment like transformers, voltage, cables and others as well as to adhere to service standards to customers like municipalities, villages and farmers or other individual users. At a workshop held in Windhoek this week under the auspices of the Electricity Control Board (ECB), standards of EU countries and South Africa were discussed. The aim was to define Namibia’s own service standards while adapting those of other countries. Good examples were seen in the case of EU countries, where providers must pay fees to customers if they do not reply to complaints or do not repair reported damages within 5 or 7 days. This had improved services tremendously elsewhere and the around 30 participants agreed similar conditions should apply to Namibia.

Policies and economic development plans in Namibia blended in well with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) initiative. At a meeting organised by the Hanns Seidel Stiftung (HSS) on Wednesday Dr Dirk Hansohm of Nepru noted that Namibia had little foreign debt and a per capita income four times higher than most African countries and was an example for good governance and regional integration. His colleague, Mr Rehabeam Shilimela conducted a study on opinions about Nepad in Namibia and found that more information about this initiative was necessary for citizens to fully embrace it. Information Minister Mbumba in his presentation noted that the view of the Namibian government on the Africa peer review mechanism of Nepad was that it was done more to satisfy outsiders than assisting to transform African countries. A body on Nepad was set up at the ministry of foreign affairs, Mbumba said. The HSS meeting followed a regional conference on "Nepad and civil society" held by HSS country representatives.