{"id":24347,"date":"2022-07-08T16:25:43","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T16:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors"},"modified":"2022-07-08T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T16:31:10","slug":"minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors","title":{"rendered":"Minister lashes Kavango oil drilling detractors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span> <\/b>Energy minister Tom Alweendo says Western countries have built their economies on drilling oil and gas, but today environmentalists from these nations have the audacity to tell Namibia not to use its resources to grow the local economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did drill just like we are drilling, and when their economy grew where it has grown, where they created the wealth they needed to have and have developed their people, now suddenly they are telling us, stop doing that,\u201d Alweendo said yesterday during an information session of his ministry in Kavango East regarding the latest oil discovery and exploration activities that are currently ongoing in Namibia.<\/p>\n

\u201cMind you, oil is being drilled in European countries as we speak. The Americans are busy drilling for oil as we speak. Why is it that we cannot do that, as long as we have the environmental management plan in place?\u2019\u2019 Both TotalEnergies and Shell made significant discoveries of light oil and associated gas off the coast of Namibia in recent months.<\/p>\n

ReconAfrica\u2019s oil exploration activities in the Kavango regions have been officially endorsed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources, after the Canadian-based company came under criticism from locals who claimed there was no consultation before the company started with its operations.<\/p>\n

International environmentalists also claim the company has not fully disclosed how harmful its operations can be, nor the environmental impact it will have on the area.<\/p>\n

However, Namibia\u2019s offshore oil discoveries have been the cause of huge enthusiasm in recent months.<\/p>\n

National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) chairperson Jennifer Comalie recently told Bloomberg in an interview that Namibia expects its biggest oil discoveries since independence to<\/p>\n

help double its economy by 2040.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt peak, these two discoveries could bring US$5.6 billion to a very small economy,\u201d she stated. Alweendo said Namibians are worried about their livelihoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got unemployment of 34% and youth unemployment of 40%, and you are being told don\u2019t use the resource that you have. Even with the best environmental management in place, don\u2019t use it because it is going to destroy the environment. I think this is really a bad Samaritan kind of environment where people say don\u2019t do what we do, but do what we say,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

The politician added that Europeans, who have decided that they are not going to use fossil fuels like coal in the production of energy sources because they are polluting the environment, are suddenly opening the closed energy plants because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They were opting for this arrangement because they don\u2019t have the gas which they<\/p>\n

used to get from Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, they are actually opening those very same plants they closed because they have a crisis. Is their crisis much more important than us having no employment?\u2019\u2019 he asked rhetorically. With regards to ReconAfrica, the minister emphasised that the exploration firm<\/p>\n

is a potential investor in the oil and gas<\/p>\n

industry, although they haven\u2019t made a discovery yet. \u201cWe welcome them as part of us, as an investment. I know there are a number of concerns,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the environmental issue, environmental management is part of our constitution. It is probably the only country that has the protection of the environment as part of the constitution. Apart from the Environmental Management Act as a law, that is in our constitution where we say we need to make sure that whatever it is that we are going to do, we should not destroy the environment.<\/p>\n

And the rules of the game are that whoever is going to do the exploration, whether it is Recon or any other mining company, they need to make sure that they do have an environmental management plan on how they are going to minimise environmental degradation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alweendo observed during the information session that nobody said drilling for oil and gas is not going to cause environmental harm.<\/p>\n

It is going to happen, but one cannot say because of that Namibia should stop and do nothing at all. They should rather insist that those investors who are doing exploration and mining must have environmental management plans, as per the country\u2019s legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecon as an investor has followed the rules and has all the permits. If we want to stop these activities, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. The people who are arguing about the environment, we are saying we are also aware of environmental issues,\u2019\u2019 he noted.<\/p>\n

Kavango East governor Bonifatius Wakudumo said outsiders cannot show up and decide to teach Namibia how to preserve their natural resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cI humbly request the various organisations, please, you cannot come today and lecture us about the environment. We fought for this country to liberate ourselves and put policies and mechanisms in place as to how we can preserve our natural resources. We don\u2019t need to be told and to be lectured by anybody in whatever capacity,\u2019\u2019 Wakudumo stressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make it clear that as a region, we are on our journey to discover what is underneath the soil, and I want to make it clear that we have a big guest in the region in the name of Recon Namibia. We have welcomed Recon with open arms to do their explorations, and I must confirm and confess that there were proper consultations done before the commencement of their explorations.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. Energy minister Tom Alweendo says Western countries have built their economies on drilling oil and gas, but today environmentalists from these nations have the audacity to tell Namibia not to use its resources to grow the local economy. \u201cThey did drill just like we are drilling, and when their economy grew where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-24347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nMinister lashes Kavango oil drilling detractors - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Energy minister Tom Alweendo says Western countries have built their economies on drilling oil and gas, but toda ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister lashes Kavango oil drilling detractors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Energy minister Tom Alweendo says Western countries have built their economies on drilling oil and gas, but toda ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-08T16:25:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-08T16:31:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_10-62c85bbb08f23.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Minister lashes Kavango oil drilling detractors\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-08T16:25:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-08T16:31:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors\"},\"wordCount\":913,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_10-62c85bbb08f23.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/minister-lashes-kavango-oil-drilling-detractors\",\"name\":\"Minister lashes Kavango oil drilling detractors - 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