The National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH) has obtained a 40 percent stake in the Angoche block and the contract is expected to be signed between June and July of this year. The information was given today by one of ENH’s directors.
The Planning and Budget Commission was on Tuesday at the National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH) to seek more elements that will support the approval of the law that creates the Sovereign Fund.
To the people’s representatives, ENH revealed that it had achieved a historic 40 percent stake in oil exploration in the Angoche block, exceeding the 10 and 15 percent barrier that it has achieved in areas that explore other mineral resources.
“We managed, in a timely way, to see that this area that is in the Angoche zone, in the offshore part, has a high potential and we also managed to predict the reserves that could be associated with this block,” one of ENH’s directors, Rudêncio Morais, said.
Based on this finding, the ENH director explained, an interaction strategy was designed with the regulator, the National Petroleum Institute, but also with the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy about the “strategic nature of the area and the need to negotiate better conditions for ENH’s participation.
Thus, without a doubt, concludes Rudêncio Morais, “it is a historical fact in an area where the AOC (private partners) were conditioned and it is guaranteed that only in the exploration phase will ENH have 40 per cent. We are currently negotiating the contracts with a predicted deadline of June and July for us to sign the final contracts”.
The commercial arm of the State believes that it is possible to increase its participation in the areas of exploration of mineral resources, provided that the costs of research are borne by the partners.
“The legislation should ensure that the AOCs bear 100 per cent of the costs of the surveys and do not share with ENH, even in the event of a commercial discovery. This means that there is already a window of cost recovery through oil-costs that the limit goes up to 60 per cent in the current legislation,” argued the ENH administrator.
And he argues further: “if this cost is recoverable through cost oil, there may not be a need to recover, also, with the participatory interest of ENH. For example, in the area where ENH has 40 per cent, it (ENH) will have to pay, from the start of commercial production, all the costs of the research phase. If we have legislation that guarantees that this cost is assumed 100 per cent by the partners and recovered with the cost oil. Then, there is no need for the financial effort of the national company to make the reimbursement.
Also during the visit of the parliamentarians, the ENH Chairman assumed that it would be difficult to get piped gas to Mozambican families in a short period of time. “Everyone would like there to be more gas for the population, but unfortunately the conditions do not allow it given the investments that are necessary and the volume of gas that is currently available in the country. Possibly we will have to create some partnerships in the future to see if the private sector can participate in the expansion, mainly around Maputo and Marracuene, but it is still something that is being debated. There is no decision”, said Estêvão Pale, CEO of ENH.
At the end of the meeting, the president of the Planning and Budget Commission, António Niquice, said that it was possible to gather all the necessary elements for the discussion and approval of the Sovereign Fund by the Parliament.
O País