HouseFinder Magazine is a practical home-and-garden-magazine. We feature a selection of properties for sale and rent from leading real estate agents in Namibia and deliver in-depth articles and expert insights on property trends and news.
As the Orange Basin races toward first oil, with TotalEnergies’ Venus and Galp’s Mopane developments both moving toward final investment decisions in 2026, Namibia is preparing to become a deepwater oil producer. Drillships, mobile offshore drilling units and a flotilla of supply and support vessels will work our waters as never before. That prospect raises a question few have stopped to ask: If something goes wrong out there, what law governs the claim?
The answer is surprisingly antique. Namibia’s admiralty jurisdiction does not flow from any modern statute. South Africa modernised its regime with the Admiralty Jurisdiction Regulation Act 105 of 1983, but that Acts stops at the Orange River. On our side of it, the High Court’s admiralty jurisdiction still rests on the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act 1890, which carried into our law the English Admiralty Court Act of 1840 and 1861.The position was confirmed in Freiremar SA v The Prosecutor-General of Namibia 1996 NR 18 (HC). In short, a producer operating some of the most technologically advanced vessels on earth may find its disputes resolved under statutes drafted in the reign of Queen Victoria.
This is not a quaint footnote. It is a live, practical problem.
The classic remedy in admiralty is the arrest of a vessel, the action in rem, which lets a claimant secure a maritime claim against the ship itself. But the nineteenth-century framework was written for ships in the ordinary sense.
This gives rise to the following questions: Is a mobile offshore drilling unit a “ship” that can be arrested? Does a floating production vessel, semi-submersible or jack-up rig fall within a jurisdiction conceived for sailing traders and streamers? Where does a pollution claim, a wreck, or an injury arising from an offshore installation sit among heads of jurisdiction decided upon before the internal combustion engine?
These are not settled questions in Namibian law and that is precisely why they deserve attention now, before a casualty forces an answer in the heat of litigation. The gap between the framework on the books and the industry arriving offshore is real. Closing it, whether through judicial development or a modern admiralty statute of Namibia’s own, is a conversation worth starting.
That conversation is exactly what this year’s Walvis Bay Maritime Week theme – “From Policy to Practice: Empowering Maritime Excellence” – invites. WKH Inc. is proud to be one of the sponsors at the Maritime Week (28 September-3 October 2026) and looks forward to helping chart the course from our maritime law’s storied past to a framework fit for Namibia’s offshore future.
