The state-owned company Portos e Caminhos-de-Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) started its maritime support operation for the oil and gas sector this Saturday, 27 July, through its subsidiary CFM Logistics.
“This is a huge challenge and an extraordinary opportunity. By fulfilling this mission, we will not only be implementing a government mandate in the implementation of oil and gas projects, but above all we will be contributing to Mozambique’s development,‘ said the chairman of CFM’s board of directors, Agostinho Langa Júnior, at the ceremony to launch CFM Logistics’ maritime operations.
Mozambique has the third largest natural gas reserves in Africa, estimated at 180 million cubic feet, and currently has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
CFM Logistics will provide support to oil companies in the onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration and production phases and the launch of its operations began on Friday 26 at the port of Nacala, in the northern province of Nampula, involving the acquisition of two tugboats and two pilot boats.
‘It will be involved in the entire chain of production, logistics and sale of energy resources, taking into account the discoveries of important natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, which add to the potential in production in the southern area, in the Pande/Temane region,’ explained Agostinho Langa Júnior.
For the director, the public company found in CFM Logistics ‘the answer to the government’s guidelines for participation and involvement in the oil and gas industry’ as a ‘relevant player’: ‘By making the most of what we do best, which is logistics and port handling. We did this after an evaluation and interaction and dialogue with partners and clients and other players in the sector.’
With almost 130 years in business, CFM, according to Langa Júnior, sees the activity of this subsidiary as an ‘excellent opportunity to expand and diversify’ the scope of its activity, ‘renew services and build new infrastructures or rehabilitate and expand existing ones to meet the needs and demand for logistics’ in the oil and gas industry.
‘CFM Logistics is, in our view, the answer to the challenges that are continually presented by concessionaires, contractors, subcontractors and other partners,’ he said, adding that the company will be the “guarantor of the implementation of the strategy to promote local content” in that industry, in employment and in association with national private companies.
The launch of the company was presided over by the head of state, Filipe Nyusi, who emphasised the priority that must be given to the inclusion of local content in the country’s oil and gas industry: ‘This moment marks a sense of mission. The national companies are responding to the demands of the oil operators, with selection criteria that are very much in place, and not only that, in a selection universe that includes companies operating in other geographies.’
‘These activities are very important because they represent an unequivocal sign of the participation of Mozambicans in the value chain of the oil and gas sector and the consequent retention of value in the country, and the same can happen in the context of local content,’ added Nysusi in his speech at the port of Nacala.
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