Namibia May Join OPEC Should Newly Discovered Oil Fields Prove Large Enough - Official

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Namibia will consider joining OPEC if its newly found oil fields enter commercial development, Namibian petroleum commissioner Maggy Shino said on Wednesday.

Joining OPEC "will be one of the options Namibia will consider," if the oil fields discovered off the country's coast prove large enough for commercial development, Shino said as quoted by Bloomberg.

On October 10, Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said that Qatar's state-owned oil and gas company QatarEnergy wants to accelerate the development of two oil fields, Venus X1 and Graff, it discovered off the coast of Namibia with joint venture partners earlier this year.

QatarEnergy owns 30% of the shares of the Venus X1 field development joint venture, while the field’s operator, French TotalEnergies, has 40%, Private Impact Oil and Gas company owns 20%, and Namibia’s state-owned NAMCOR has 10%. In the Graff field, UK Shell and QatarEnergy each hold a 45% stake, while NAMCOR owns the remaining 10%.

The commissioning of these fields could make Namibia, a southern neighbor of OPEC member Angola, another oil producer on the African Atlantic coast.

The companies have not yet reported on the quantities of oil found in the fields.

Last month, during an oil conference in Dakar, Namibian Energy Minister Tom Alweendo said that the joint venture partners could start production at the country's new fields in four years.