I'd say so. Thanks for sharing the response though...intriguing....

I'd say so. Thanks for sharing the response though...intriguing. In the meantime:

Namibia urged to usher in stability clause to cool investor fears

"Billions of dollars of upstream investments could be at risk if Namibia’s new government does not ensure fiscal stability clauses are incorporated into its petroleum legislation, listeners were told during the Southern Africa session in Upstream's Global Development & Decarbonisation Week 2025. Such a clause would state that if Namibia were to make legislative or regulatory changes, energy companies signing the original contract would be protected from negative economic impacts. There have been calls for Windhoek to put in place stabilisation clauses for at least two years, with the issue becoming more urgent with as many as three projects on the path towards being developed.

TotalEnergies hopes to sanction its Venus project in 2026, with Galp Energia also working on its Mopane development, and Rhino Resources eyeing a potential commercial project on its acreage after the Sagittarius and Capricornus discoveries.

Paul Eardley-Taylor, gas sector lead at Standard Bank in Johannesburg, said during the Upstream event that fiscal stability is very important in emerging oil and gas markets, arguing that there is no reason not to have it. He said that in Namibia’s case, it seems “pretty obvious that there is no downside from agreeing to fiscal stability… compared to the upside of having multiple investment projects.”

Citing figures from consultancy Wood Mackenzie, he pointed out that Namibia’s fiscal take on the Venus and Mopane projects in, for example, 2037 is estimated to be $2.8 billion for the country whose gross domestic product is currently $12 billion. “There really seems only downside from not agreeing to fiscal stability. It's something that the country, in my opinion, should sign, close and move on to other things,” Eardley-Taylor said.

Robert Bose, chief executive of Sintana Energy — which has an indirect interest in Mopane as well as exposure to other exploration blocks in Namibia — told the webinar he wholeheartedly agreed with these comments.“If you think about the sheer scale of capital and exposure that is required to take either Venus or Mopane to first oil, you’re talking about five-to-seven years of exposure in the tens of billions of dollars (with) geological, technical, operational, inflationary and financial risk," he said.

“Trying to make those kinds of investment decisions in the absence of fiscal stabilisation clauses is, practically speaking, impossible,” Bose argued, adding: “Everything you can do above ground to limit and manage those exposures will only facilitate bringing these resources online.”

However, despite a lack of clarity on fiscal stability legislation, he noted that “we've seen a very receptive posture” from the new government of President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Gil Holzman, chief executive of Eco Atlantic — which operates a swathe of blocks in Namibia’s Walvis basin — agreed that a huge capital investment requires a stable fiscal regime and said the Namibian government knows this.“I don't see it as a problem in Namibia. I think the Namibians understand it better than anyone. I think they understand the needs of the industry because they were always supportive of the industry. They understand the risks of big companies moving elsewhere if they don't get (fiscal stability).”Neil Hodgson, vice president of geoscience at Searcher Seismic —which has acquired a significant amount of seismic data in Namibia — said the government “knows exactly what they're doing, but the key is timing.”“If we're talking about negotiating some stabilisation of terms agreement, it's got to be done tomorrow; it's got to be done quickly and not in five years,” Hodgson said."