The companies’ lack of commitment to the communities during the exploration of natural resources in Mozambique is one of the main points of concern for the government, as there have been cases of failure to value Local Content and poor development of the areas where the projects are installed.
In this regard, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Carlos Zacarias, recommended strict compliance with the regulatory framework for exploration, especially for oil and gas in Area 4 of the Rovuma basin, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Quoted by Radio Moçambique, he said that the multinationals must ensure that the impacts of oil exploration do not harm communities and the environment, making the areas sustainable and with improved conditions.
‘We recommend that they comply with what is established at national and international level in order to give credibility to the work in progress, looking at environmental issues,’ he emphasised.
On Wednesday (29), the Executive formally awarded an area for oil exploration and production in the Angoche sedimentary basin, in northern Mozambique, to the consortium formed by the Italian multinational Eni and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH).
During the signing of the contract, Carlos Zacarias said that the results of the preliminary studies carried out in the Angoche sedimentary basin that have been achieved so far raise expectations regarding the operations that the consortium will carry out.
Mozambique has the third largest natural gas reserves in Africa. The country currently 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.
Two of these projects are larger in scale and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a factory and exporting it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium) and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely after an armed attack on Palma in March 2021, when the French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe.
The other is the still-unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium, onshore), with the Italian oil company having another offshore site that is already practically in full production.
