Fishing activity taking place on the coastline near the proposed TotalEnergies oil production site at Lüderitz will barely be affected by oil activities.
This is according to an environmental and social impact assessment conducted on the Venus offshore block PEL0056/Block 2913B for French oil giant TotalEnergies.
The assessment conducted by independent consultants says some marine animals that live in soft seabed sediments may be affected by mud and chemicals released into the water.
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This is because "the mud and drill cuttings can make the water cloudy (turbid), which may affect how some animals feed or breathe, and chemicals in the mud can reduce oxygen levels in the seabed over time", states the report.
Big fishing boats that catch large fish with long lines will need to stay outside designated safety zones around the oil drilling site to avoid getting tangled in the equipment.
However, there will be some behavioural change from the fish due to underwater noise.
"Increased underwater noise and discharges may cause minor behavioural changes in fish," states the report.
One of the areas where production of oil is set to take place is home to sardine, anchovy, horse mackerel, snoek and chub mackerel, which are big export goods for Namibia.
In the area where line fishers catch fish, the assessment notes that there is a small protected area of about 9 square kilometres around a nearshore buoy.
This could cause minor disturbances for these fishers, but since the protected zone overlaps very little with their usual fishing spots, the impact should be small.
"Underwater noise generated during transshipment operations may temporarily influence fish behaviour, but these effects are confined to a small area and occur within an already busy marine traffic route," notes the assessment.
Small-scale local fishers near the coast are also not significantly affected because their fishing activities are mostly in shallow waters or along the shoreline, away from the restricted zones.
The small protected area around the transshipment - where fish or supplies are moved between ships - overlaps very little with where they fish. So, their fishing should not be significantly affected.
"The proposed restricted area has a very small overlap with active small-scale fisheries grounds, which are mostly limited to intertidal shellfish collection and shallow water seaweed harvesting - these activities occur well outside the transshipment area," notes the report.
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TotalEnergies and its joint venture partners, Impact Oil & Gas, QatarEnergy International E&P LLC and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia, are now doing another round of public consultations for its environmental and social impact assessment report before approval from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
The petroleum exploration licence (PEL) for PEL56/Block 2913B is located 300km from Oranjemund, 320km from Lüderitz and 700km from the main port of Walvis Bay from where the oil will be exported.
The capital-intensive project aims to extract oil 3 000m from the seabed after another 3km from the water surface.
The project involves drilling up to 40 wells, which is made up of 20 oil producing wells and 20 gas injection wells, the report states.
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