This African nation, ‘Saudi Arabia of Africa’, has jackpot oil, gas and…; India wants to…, the country is…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Namibia on Wednesday morning, marking the first visit by an Indian PM to the African nation after 27 years. Namibia, dubbed by many as the ‘Saudi Arabia of Africa’ is resource-rich country with vast reserves oil, natural gas, uranium, and other precious minerals.
According to official sources, during PM Modi’s visit, India is likely to sign a deal on the export of uranium as well as the exploration of oil and gas resources in Namibia.
India is very interested in exporting Uranium from Namibia, and help in oil and gas exploration, which would be a beneficial and profitable arrangement for both countries, said India’s High Commissioner to Namibia Rahul Srivastava.
Why Namibia is called ‘Saudi Arabia of Africa’?
Namibia is called by many experts as the ‘Saudi Arabia of Africa’ the African nation has vast reserves of oil, gas, uranium, and other precious minerals such as copper, gold and silver. The country has a small population of just over 3 million people, yet holds immense strategic value on the global stage due to its natural resources.
According to various reports, Namibia is home to some of the world’s largest oil fields, and its offshore reserves are estimated to have 20 billion barrels of oil. Namibia was ranked among the world’s top 10 oil producers in 2025, and recent discoveries indicatethat there could be even larger oil and gas reserves in the African country.
Additionally, Namibia also has vast reserves of uranium.
When did oil exploration begin in Namibia?
The exploration of oil and gas reserves in Namibia began in the early 1970s, but the exploration activity has drastically increased after 2022, leading to the discovery of vast reserves that have significantly strengthened the country’s economy, and caught the attention of major world powers, including the United States, Russia, and China.
Recently, Rhino Resources– a private exploration firm– announced the discovery hydrocarbons in the Sagittarius 1-X well, which sparked a bidding war among global energy giants like ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies and Chevron.
How Namibia could become a leading oil producer?
Namibia has 230,000 square kilometres of licensed land, compared to less than 100,000 square kilometres in Norway. But the region is still largely underexplored, and only has few deep oil wells compared to the thousands in offshore regions like North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
However, experts believe that Namibia’s oil exploration success rate will rapidly increase in the coming years, and its offshore oil discoveries will catapult the country as one of the leading oil producers in the world by 2035. The next couple of years are crucial for Namibia’s oil aspirations as several key projects will decide the fate of its reserves.
Next year, TotalEnergies will break ground on a comprehensive development of the basin, while drilling and exploration work will take place in the Orange Basin in the meantime
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