" Canadian oil company pauses controversial drilling in Namibian wilderness" 27 June 2023

ReconAfrica has licenses to look for petroleum across more than 13,200 square miles in Namibia and Botswana. Since 2021, the company has drilled three test wells in northeastern Namibia within the Okavango River watershed, but it hasn’t presented any public proof of recoverable oil. ReconAfrica has said it now plans to explore in northwestern Botswana. ReconAfrica’s license areas are upstream of the Okavango Delta, a World Heritage Site, and within the ecologically sensitive and wildlife-rich Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. Five southern African countries established this massive region to protect endangered African wild dogs, black rhinos, and savanna elephants—the continent’s largest remaining population—among a myriad of other animals. [...] Leon Swanepoel is the manager at the Ngandu Hotel, in Rundu, where many of ReconAfrica’s foreign staff have lived since mid-2021. When asked on June 12 if he believed that the staff had left, he said that a senior ReconAfrica employee told him that they were headed for new oil exploration work in Zimbabwe. Asked if he thought the company’s staff had abandoned ReconAfrica’s drilling camps in Namibia, Swanepoel said, “Yes they did.” He added that although he hoped ReconAfrica would find oil in Namibia, he didn’t "understand why it took them so long to decide whether it's worth drilling or not.”

Janine Treader, of ReconAfrica, shared a June 8 statement on behalf of the company’s media relations team answering National Geographic’s questions. It said that the company has paused drilling in Namibia while new aerial and seismic surveys are being examined. It also said that ReconAfrica remains committed to the search for oil at “the invitation of the governments of Namibia and Botswana and looks forward to the future of our exploration.” The statement continued, “We plan to be drilling again later this year when additional local and foreign workers will once again be required." ReconAfrica faces class action lawsuits in the United States and Canada and awaits a decision from Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Tourism that will determine whether the company’s drilling permit will be revoked. In addition, ReconAfrica’s March 1, 2023, filing to Canadian securities regulatory authorities noted “the existence of material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt” on whether it can continue as a “going concern.” In other words, as of the date of that filing, the company noted that its revenues weren’t sufficient to finance ongoing operations.