The General Manager of BW Energy, Dr. Klaus Anderson, has commended the Namibian government for its continuous engagement with stakeholders in the energy sector.
Dr. Anderson, who was speaking during an information-sharing session on the oil and gas industry, said BW Energy will develop a gas power plant in two phases with a capacity of 840 megawatts by 2026.
The company will be tapping gas from the Kudu Gas field.
The ||Kharas Region is endowed with the natural resources required for renewable energy supplies, including the sun and wind.
This is in addition to the discovery of gas, which Dr. Anderson hopes will stabilize the power supply.
Namibia imports 60% of its energy needs from South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with all three SADC countries currently load shedding as demand in their own backyards remains high.
"So our project comprises four different main elements: we have the folding platform that's the fleet operations, and then there is a huge gas pipeline to bring the gas to shore, then we have our power station, and then we have the transmission line components we have to bring that energy to the market."
The current peak electricity demand in the country is 620 megawatts, and the power plant, once completed, will, according to Dr. Anderson, produce an additional capacity of about 220 megawatts, which can be exported to other parts of the sub-region.
Currently, BW Energy is the only gas production license holder in the country and is operating 130 kilometers offshore with 170 meters of water depth.
Dr. Anderson says that Namibia will be a global energy supplier with the discovery of oil, gas, and the production of green hydrogen.
"If you want to have a continuous and stable supply of electricity, you need to supplement solar power with something else, and if you want to be self-reliant and use domestic resources, it will have to be gas because we don't have coal and nobody wants to use coal in any case."
Namibia has currently identified four offshore basins, namely the Namib Basin, Walvis Basin, Luderitz Basin, and Orange Basin, which is the largest.