By: Africa oil + gas report

The Namibia Petroleum Operators Association (NAMPOA) has announced the election of Eduardo Rodriguez Tamayo, Shell Namibia’s Country Chair, as its Chairperson.

It’s an interesting turn of events, considering widespread speculation about Shell’s imminent exit from Namibia’s upstream, following its announcement, in January 2025, of a write down of $400Million on its Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 39, after drilling six exploration and three appraisal wells, and making a number of finds, including Graff and Jonker.

Shell has now reportedly retreated from seeing its Namibian fortune hunting in a negative light.  S&P reported, on August 18, 2025, that a spokesperson of the UK major declared that “Shell, along with its partners, is progressing plans to conduct further exploration drilling activity in PEL 039 during 2026 to continue its evaluation of the prospectivity.”

American trained Rodriguez was appointed Shell’s country manager for Namibia in April 2024, after Leye Falade, his predecessor, was promoted to Brunei as Managing Director Brunei LNG Sendirian Berhad.

As NAMPOA’s chairman, Rodriguez takes over from the Namibian economist Klaus Endresen, who served two terms and remains on the Board. Endresen is the General Manager at BW Kudu, a subsidiary of the Norwegian explorer BW Energy. The NAMPOA board also includes Selma Usiku, Non-Executive Director at Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas, who was named Vice-Chairperson, as well as Saave Nakashole of NAMCOR joined the Board, bringing the perspective of Namibia’s national oil company.

NAMPOA retained Diogo Martins (Galp Energia) and Laurent Roché (TOTAlEnergies) as continuing members, “to ensure stability and continuity during a period of intensified exploration activity”, according to a statement. “To enhance internal operations, Suoma Andreas was appointed Administrative Coordinator, supporting member engagement and institutional capacity as the industry scales up”.