This move comes as Namibia gears up to potentially become Africa’s fourth-largest oil producer by the next decade, according to an African industry official.

In recent years, TotalEnergies and Shell have found around 2.6 billion barrels of oil, getting Namibia ready to start producing by 2030, Reuters reported.

In the long run, OPEC, along with Russia and other members of OPEC+, aims to have Namibia as a full member, NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber stated, adding that his organization has been helping facilitate discussions between the two parties.

In February, OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais mentioned that OPEC was in discussions with several countries about joining the charter, although he didn’t specify which ones.

OPEC in a tweet at the time said Al Ghais met Namibian Minister of Mines and Energy Tom Alweendo at a conference in Nigeria where the prospect of OPEC and Namibia working together “under the umbrella of the charter of cooperation” was raised.

Last year, Namibian Petroleum Commissioner Maggy Shino expressed interest in joining the OPEC “family,” as reported by S&P Commodity Insights.

However, in March, Minister Alweendo said OPEC membership was not currently under consideration.

“We haven’t been approached by anyone to join OPEC. OPEC members are petroleum exporting countries and we are not there yet,” he said. “That is a consideration only after we have started to produce.”

Discussions between OPEC and the Namibian government are expected to resume in late April.

Angola’s OPEC exit and Namibia’s emerging role

Angola, which joined OPEC in 2007, produces about 1.1 million barrels per day, compared with 28 million bpd for the whole group. Before the country’s exit, Angola was unable to meet its OPEC+ output quota because of declining investment.

With Angola’s exit from OPEC, the organization now comprises 12 members, maintaining a crude oil production of about 27 million barrels per day (bpd), some 27% of the 102 million bpd world oil market.

The departure of Angola continues the trend of diminishing OPEC’s share in the world market, which was at 34% in 2010.

In recent years, about 2.6 billion barrels of oil have been discovered in Namibia, Pranav Joshi of energy consultancy Rystad Energy told Reuters.

Based on the existing discoveries, Namibia is looking at 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of peak production capacity by the next decade, Joshi estimated.

While this figure is smaller than Angola’s output, Namibia’s production capacity could increase with more successful exploration endeavours.