IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gig/afjour/v50y2015i2p31-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ready or Not: Namibia As a Potentially Successful Oil Producer

Author

Listed:
  • Andrzej Polus
  • Dominik Kopinski
  • Wojciech Tycholiz

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to assess whether Namibia is ready to become an oil producer. The geological estimates suggest that the country may possess the equivalent of as many as 11 billion barrels of crude oil. If the numbers are correct, Namibia would be sitting on the second-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, and exploitation could start as soon as 2017. This clearly raises the question of whether Namibia is next in line to become a victim of the notorious “resource curse.” On the basis of critical discourse analysis and findings from field research, the authors have selected six dimensions of the resource curse and contextualised them within the spheres of Namibian politics and economy. While Namibia still faces a number of important challenges, our findings offer little evidence that the oil will have particularly disruptive effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrzej Polus & Dominik Kopinski & Wojciech Tycholiz, 2015. "Ready or Not: Namibia As a Potentially Successful Oil Producer," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 50(2), pages 31-55.
  • Handle: RePEc:gig:afjour:v:50:y:2015:i:2:p:31-55
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp/article/view/858
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brunnschweiler, Christa N. & Bulte, Erwin H., 2008. "The resource curse revisited and revised: A tale of paradoxes and red herrings," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 248-264, May.
    2. Halvor Mehlum & Karl Moene & Ragnar Torvik, 2006. "Institutions and the Resource Curse," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(508), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Ostry, Jonathan D., 2012. "Managing Capital Flows: What Tools to Use?," Asian Development Review, Asian Development Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 83-89.
    4. Halvor Mehlum & Karl Moene & Ragnar Torvik, 2006. "Cursed by Resources or Institutions?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 1117-1131, August.
    5. Ms. Marialuz Moreno Badia & Mr. Alex Segura-Ubiergo, 2014. "Real Exchange Rate Appreciation in Emerging Markets: Can Fiscal Policy Help?," IMF Working Papers 2014/001, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Paul Collier & Benedikt Goderis, 2007. "Commodity Prices, Growth, and the Natural Resource Curse: Reconciling a Conundrum," CSAE Working Paper Series 2007-15, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    7. Ostry, Jonathan D., 2012. "Managing Capital Flows: What Tools to Use?," Asian Development Review, Asian Development Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 83-89.
    8. Hazel McFerson, 2009. "Governance and Hyper-corruption in Resource-rich African Countries," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(8), pages 1529-1547.
    9. Lowi,Miriam R., 2009. "Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521113182, October.
    10. Virginia Haufler, 2010. "Disclosure as Governance: The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and Resource Management in the Developing World," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 53-73, August.
    11. Stéphane Cossé, 2006. "Strengthening Transparency in the Oil Sector in Cameroon; Why Does it Matter?," IMF Policy Discussion Papers 06/02, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Scholvin, Sören, 2021. "Prospects and pitfalls of Namibia's oil and gas sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sharma, Chandan & Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy, 2022. "Resource curse versus resource blessing: New evidence from resource capital data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Azam, Muhammad & Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Taskin, Dilvin & Al-Faryan, Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh, 2023. "Role of ethnic conflicts, regularization and natural resource abundance in sustainable development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    3. Evelyn Dietsche, 2017. "Political economy and governance," WIDER Working Paper Series 024, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Evelyn Dietsche, 2017. "Political economy and governance," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-24, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Wiig, Arne & Kolstad, Ivar, 2010. "Multinational corporations and host country institutions: A case study of CSR activities in Angola," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 178-190, April.
    6. Francesco Caselli & Guy Michaels, 2013. "Do Oil Windfalls Improve Living Standards? Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 208-238, January.
    7. Smith, Brock, 2015. "The resource curse exorcised: Evidence from a panel of countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 57-73.
    8. Amin Karimu & George Adu & George Marbuah & Justice Tei Mensah & Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah, 2017. "Natural Resource Revenues and Public Investment in Resource-rich Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 107-130, November.
    9. Cockx, Lara & Francken, Nathalie, 2014. "Extending the concept of the resource curse: Natural resources and public spending on health," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 136-149.
    10. Malebogo Bakwena & Philip Bodman & Thanh Le & KK Tang, "undated". "Avoiding the Resource Curse: The Role of Institutions," MRG Discussion Paper Series 3209, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    11. Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2007. "What Turns a Blessing into a Curse? The Political Economy of Natural Resource Wealth (Invited Lecture)," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 46(4), pages 351-377.
    12. Siakwah, Pius, 2017. "Are natural resource windfalls a blessing or a curse in democratic settings? Globalised assemblages and the problematic impacts of oil on Ghana's development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 122-133.
    13. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Ahmed, Khalid & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Jiao, Zhilun, 2019. "Resource curse hypothesis and role of oil prices in USA," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Cockx, Lara & Francken, Nathalie, 2016. "Natural resources: A curse on education spending?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 394-408.
    15. Kaznacheev, Peter, 2013. "Resource Rents and Economic Growth: Economic and institutional development in countries with a high share of income from the sale of natural resources. Analysis and recommendations based on internatio," EconStor Research Reports 121950, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    16. Kolstad, Ivar & Søreide, Tina, 2009. "Corruption in natural resource management: Implications for policy makers," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 214-226, December.
    17. Andries Francois Geldenhuys & Oluseye Samuel Ajuwon & Michael Graham, 2020. "Resource Curse And The Eiti Membership Effect On The Economic Growth And Corruption In Sub-Saharan Africa: Part I - A Theoretical Review," Oradea Journal of Business and Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 18-28, March.
    18. Brahmbhatt, Milan & Canuto, Otaviano & Vostroknutova, Ekaterina, 2010. "Dealing with Dutch Disease," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 16, pages 1-7, June.
    19. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Asongu, Simplice A. & Kamguia, Brice, 2023. "Natural resources, child mortality and governance quality in African countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Boris Petkov, 2018. "Natural Resource Abundance: Is it a Blessing or is it a Curse," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 43(3), pages 25-56, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gig:afjour:v:50:y:2015:i:2:p:31-55. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Andreas Mehler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.