Nuyoma Wagari, in Windhoek
Namibia’s upstream local content policy has moved beyond the draft phase, but not yet ready for gazetting, an oil and gas conference has learned in Windhoek.
The country’s Cabinet has approved the policy “in principle”, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah told the ongoing Namibia International Energy Conference.
The Cabinet signed off on the initiative to draft the policy in 2022. In September 2025, the presidency, through its Upstream Petroleum Unit, launched public consultationson the document in Lüderitz, a coastal harbour town in the country’s southwest. The consultations were expected to cover all 14 regions.
The upstream petroleum local content policy is aimed at building local capacity and facilitating skills transfer, with the stated goal of directing the benefits of large-scale energy projects primarily toward Namibians.
It also seeks to create a globally competitive petroleum sector that maximises national benefits by fostering meaningful and lasting participation by Namibians and local businesses across the value chain.
The Namibian state hopes to diversify her revenue sources beyond taxes and royalties through the policy, by focusing on value extraction through backward, sideways and forward linkages.
The document places emphasis on technology transfer, knowledge sharing and skills development, promotes Namibian ownership and financing and balances stronger local participation with continued foreign investment.
The process of approving the local content policy is running parallel to the parliamentary debate on the Petroleum Exploration and Production Amendment Bill, which failed to pass on an urgent basis last year. The bill returned to the National Assembly in February 2026 through Modestus Amutse, the recently appointed industries, mines and energy minister.
Namibia has been one of the world’s prime exploration spots since Shell announced the discovery of light oil and associated natural gas in the Graff-1X exploration well in the deepwater Orange Basin in 2021. TOTALEnergies announced its Venus-1X discovery after, and Galp Energia added excitement with their announcement of the Mopane oil discovery. Other companies have followed suit.
Although first oil is not yet in clear sight, even by TOTAL, which has done a lot of development work on Venus, Namibia targets increasing carried participation from 10% to 15% over five years, producing 150Million barrels of oil equivalent, raising gas production to 130 Million standard cubic feet per day, and creating 22 800 jobs by 2030.
