#Namibia's newly discovered oil reserves amount to billions of barrels #African country Namibia has explored "amazing" oil reserves, which the chairman of the country's state-owned oil company believes will double Namibia's GDP by 2040. But the reality is that countries that rely on resource exports to drive economic growth may not only encounter the "resource curse", but also may invite disasters if the military strength is not strong enough.
According to Namibian media reports, African countries, including South Africa and Uganda, are likely to attract billions of dollars in investment in the coming years, of which Namibia alone can add 500,000 barrels of oil to the world every day. Namibia's Minerals & Oil Commissioner believes this means Namibia has the potential to become "the last African giant" and hopes the Shell project will be put into production in 2026.
Namibia was the last country on the African continent to gain national independence, had an independent regime, and had nationalized oil companies, so it had the preconditions for independent oil exploitation. But Namibia's economy is not developed, with 65 percent of its banks owned by foreign capital and no capacity to independently extract, transport, and sell oil. The two companies that discovered oil in Namibia this time are Total Energy in France and Shell Oil from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. If the final mining rights belong to these two companies, then it is possible that the Namibian government can only collect a tax, or cooperate in mining, and share it amicably.
After all, in the world, Namibia has a precedent for Venezuela. Venezuela has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and once had the largest GDP in South America. But because the country does not have the industrial capacity to extract oil, the United States has mastered 70% of the oil fields. In 1976, Venezuela confiscated oil fields and equipment from European and American countries, but did not seize the opportunity to develop industry, and now sits on the golden mountain, with inflation once as high as 130,000%.
Namibian opposition leader Itura believes the government's gains from well development projects are too low and that the government should reconsider its cooperation with Shell and Total. Energy analysts argue that it is fair for the Namibian government to take a 10 percent stake in the project, in other words, the Namibian government is already shy, but it is very likely that it will not even get 10% of the profits, and it will risk great exploration failure.
Namibia's proven oil reserves this time are "billions of barrels", while in the OPEC+ organization, Saudi Arabia's proven oil reserves are 267.1 billion barrels, and Russia's is 80 billion barrels, the seventh in the world. Namibia's "billion barrels" will not have a very big impact on the international oil market, but it raises fears that it will follow syria's old path.
According to a 2011 report, Syria's oil reserves are about 2.5 billion barrels and it has not joined the OPEC+ group. Everyone knows that the US military steals oil from Syria for three days and two ends, and the oil stolen from northeast Syria every day is as high as 83% of the daily production. What many people don't know is that the United States also has troops in nearly half of African countries, and Africa has become the second largest military gathering place for the United States after the Middle East. South Africa's Post Guardian found that in Botswana, which is close to Namibia, U.S. special forces have also built secret bases.
Fortunately, China's diplomatic foundation with Namibia is deep, and Namibia established diplomatic relations with China on the second day of achieving independence. Among the foreign investment attracted by Namibia, Chinese investment has occupied the first place since 2017, and although it has declined due to the impact of the epidemic in 2020, it still accounts for 32% of the total foreign investment. China has been providing food aid to Namibia and has been Namibia's largest export market since 2018. And in Namibia's government infrastructure projects, Chinese companies account for half of the share. Chinese companies have a very strong foundation of trust in Namibia, and even if the country's state-owned oil companies are to re-tender, They will be able to compete with Shell.