Africa-Press – Namibia. The Ministry of Mines and Energy says it is investigating claims that a private company discovered oil in the //Kharas region over the weekend. The company was contracted by a farmer to drill two boreholes in the Klein Vaalgras area.
Photos which were allegedly taken at the discovery site, depicting a dark substance, made rounds on social media yesterday and got hundreds of social media users talking.
According to sources, the purported oil was discovered after the company drilling the boreholes drilled 150 metres below the ground’s surface. Ministry spokesperson Andreas Simon yesterday said a team of geologists have been sent to Vaalgras to investigate the claims. He said the experts will take samples of the substance and test and analyse them.
“As it stands, we cannot confirm whether it is indeed oil. These pictures could have been taken anywhere in the world. Based on that we now have to go down to that site where they are claiming and alleging that they found oil to also look at whether the pictures that they sent match those what we have received,” he said.
Simon said the substance could be manganese or a mix of iron and oil. A works inspector from the Directorate of Rural Water Supply in the region, Robert Stephanus, said they started drilling a community borehole at Klein Vaalgras last Monday but did not reach water at 150 metres.
He said thereafter they opted for a depth of 200 metres. At this depth he said the drilling team struck a mixture of oil and water of about four cubic litres on Tuesday.
“We were drilling on coordinates given by the Geological Survey of where the borehole should be located as normal procedure, but it was not producing water. To our shock and surprise when we went deeper we found a mixture of oil and water,” Stephanus said.
A community activist from Gibeon, Niklaas Dawson, says oil exploration is not new in the Vaalgras area. Dawson says prior exploration took place between 2006 and 2010 in the areas of Maltahöhe, Gibeon, and Vaalgras.
“All these explorations were stopped abruptly without the community even being informed why,” he says. The explorations were reportedly stopped as they were not commercially viable.
Senior councillor of the Vaalgras Traditional Authority Martin Biwa says should such a find materialise it would turn the lives of the Vaalgras community and surrounding towns around for the better. Biwa says it would create new economic streams, job opportunities, and infrastructure development.
“We would be delighted if oil is discovered here. All I was informed by the drilling team was they found water, but it tasted more like oil. So, let’s not sell the skin of the calf before it is slaughtered,” he says.
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