Portuguese independent GALP Energia has appointed Saave Nakashole as its Deputy Country Manager for Public and Operational Affairs in Namibia.
It is the most politically savvy appointment to a top position by any of the leading E &P operators in the southwest African country.
Nakashole joins GALP after spending 14 years at the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR), where she held several technical and strategic roles in the upstream oil and gas sector.
She was involved in subsurface evaluations, asset assessments, upstream growth initiatives and the evaluation of commercial opportunities at the state hydrocarbon company.
She also worked closely with government institutions, international oil companies and joint venture partners, and served as a board member of the Namibia Petroleum Operators Association (NAMPOA).
In a thinly populated country like Namibia, with industry experience even thinner on the ground, Ms. Nakashole’s CV comes with notable political heft.
GALP has been a vital catalyst in Namibia’s emergence as an energy powerhouse through its discovery of the giant Mopane field. But the farming out of that multi-hundred million barrel accumulation to TOTALEnergies for operatorship, a deal which is tied to GALP’s own farm in into TOTAL’s development-ready Venus field, has been held up at the highest offices in Namibia.
TOTAL’s widely anticipated Final Investment Decision on the Venus field development is assumed to be premised on the approvals of the farm in -farm out deal between TOTAL and GALP on Mopane and Venus.
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