Is it Norway or Nigeria for Namibia?

On July 6, the Namibian Mines and Energy Minister, Isak Katali, announced the discovery of vast oil reserves off the Southern Namibian coast. It is estimated that the deposits are huge at 11 billion barrels, this is slightly lower than the reported Angolan reserves.

This will certainly put Namibia in the top five oil producing countries in the continent which include Nigeria, Libya, Algeria and Angola. Unfortunately it would appear that our neighbour Namibia is now in bad company for not one of these countries can be seen as a by-word for peace and prosperity on the African continent. In the last decade or two each of these countries has undergone the most violent of civil wars and internal conflicts and the existence of large deposits of oil has certainly been part of the equation.