Kavango East Governor, Bonifasius Wakudumo, on Thursday commissioned the first oil and gas exploration project in Africa by a Canadian company, Recon Africa, at Kawe village.
Recon Africa acquired its petroleum licence from the Ministry of Mines and Energy in 2015 for exploration in both the Kavango East and Kavango West regions.
During his official remarks, Wakudumo applauded the Canadian company for embarking on such a massive project in the two regions.
He said the commissioning of a project of such magnitude signifies development.
“We know that these are private institutions and private developers but what the government is saying is that we need to meet government halfway in terms of employment creation. It is our humble request in the presence of the owners of Recon Africa that we want full participation of the local populace on the project,” said Wakudumo.
The official commissioning of Site 6-2 at Kawe was amongst others attended by the Executive Director in the Ministry of Mines and Energy Simeon Negumbo, Managing Director of the Namibian National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor), Immanuel Mulunga and various representatives of traditional authorities in the two regions.
Recon Africa’s Deputy Director, Yusneurys Martinez, explained that their initial goal is to find hydrocarbon, which can represent the presence of oil and gas.
Martinez further said on-shore exploration for oil and gas in Namibia is very limited and kicking off the exploration activity at Kawe will mark an important moment for Namibia.
“We are going to start with the drilling of a deep well because the final goal of this well is to confirm, find and demonstrate the presence of an active petroleum system,” he said.