Namibia has been forced to bring in a new oil and gas licensing regime due to a “massive backlog” of licence applications that has built up since TotalEnergies and Shell made their huge, play-opening discoveries in the Orange basin in early 2022.

While the move has been cautiously welcomed by industry sources, they say that Namibia must urgently address manpower shortages in the Ministry of Mines & Energy (MME) and state oil company Namcor, both of which are involved in the licence application process.