The Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, noted this Friday (13) the ‘large scale’ growth of the country’s extractive sector, given the exploitation of mineral resources, highlighting efforts to prevent conflicts with local communities.
‘The extractive sector in Mozambique has been growing in size with the exploitation of mineral resources and hydrocarbons, but we have done everything we can to ensure that this is not a cause for conflict,’ said Filipe Nyusi, quoted by Lusa, during the inauguration of the Joaquim Mara resettlement village, built by the oil company Sasol in Inhassoro, in Inhambane province.
According to the head of state, resource exploitation projects must serve to improve social conditions, emphasising the importance of negotiations and consensus before projects are realised in order to avoid conflicts with communities.
‘The taxes that are collected from these projects are the ones that make roads (…), the salaries, although debatable, also come from these efforts. That’s how distribution is done,’ he said.
On the occasion, Nyusi said that the resettlement village that was inaugurated was an example of territorial planning, considering that the infrastructure ‘rejects’ the narrative of land grabbing or ‘imposing forced changes’ on the local population.
According to the head of state, resource exploitation projects must serve to improve social conditions, emphasising the importance of negotiations and consensus before projects are realised in order to avoid conflicts with communities
According to the Mozambican President, the Joaquim Mara resettlement village was built with resilient materials and includes, among other things, single-family homes, infrastructure for education, sports, teachers’ residences and churches.
‘Aware that the infrastructures delivered today are the basis for the socio-economic growth of our population, we recommend that they be preserved so that they can serve future generations,’ concluded Filipe Nyusi.
Last August, it was announced that the South African oil company Sasol had exported 2.6 million gigajoules (GJ) of natural gas in southern Mozambique out of a total of three million produced over the last 20 years in the country.
‘This milestone not only put Mozambique on the regional map of natural gas producers, but also laid the foundations for the development of the oil sector at national level,’ said the head of state, during a statement to the nation at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the creation of the National Petroleum Institute (INP) in Maputo on 20 August.
Sasol has been exploiting gas reserves since 2004 in Temane and Pande, in Inhambane province, with pipelines to South Africa and Maputo, as well as feeding the Mozambican power station at Ressano Garcia, near the capital and on the border with South Africa.
Last August, it was announced that South African oil company Sasol had exported 2.6 million gigajoules (GJ) of natural gas in southern Mozambique out of a total of three million produced over the last 20 years in the country
According to the PR, of the total produced by the South African company, 352 million gigajoules – a unit of energy equivalent to around 25.5 cubic metres – were consumed on the Mozambican market as commercial gas and also served as ‘royalties in kind’.
For Nyusi, the start of gas exploration in Pande and Temane was one of the country’s great achievements in the efforts to harness energy potential, laying the foundations for the development of the oil sector for the benefit of Mozambicans, which culminated in the discovery of reserves in the Rovuma basin, estimated at around 180 trillion cubic feet.
The country has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as one of the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
