The Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, said on Monday 19 August that the National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH) should ensure the retention of liquefied natural gas (LNG) quotas destined for the domestic market, with the aim of fostering industrial development.
‘ENH must guarantee the use of the LNG quotas destined for the domestic market in order to foster industrial development and ensure that investments are maximised,’ said the government official during the ceremony where Ludovina Bernardo took office as president of ENH.
Maleiane emphasised that the entity needs effective and ambitious measures in order to cement its robustness on the international market.
‘We hope that ENH will continue to adopt measures and implement bold actions that will increasingly ensure its participation in the entire hydrocarbon value chain, focusing on investment, research, development, production, commercialisation and distribution of oil resources,’ she said.
Data published in April revealed that the National Hydrocarbons Company ‘s profits stood at 3.5 billion meticals in 2023, a substantial increase on the 461.9 million meticals recorded in 2022.
According to the 2023 report and accounts, the positive performance was influenced by the considerable increase in revenues from natural gas sales and the containment of operating costs, a measure adopted with a view to reducing expenses and optimising short and medium-term financial investments.
The document pointed out that the liquidity ratio increased during the period in question, despite a slight deterioration in the company’s solvency and debt ratios.
Created in 1981, ENH is involved in all oil operations and the respective phases of research, exploration, production, refining, transport, storage and commercialisation of hydrocarbons and their derivatives, including liquefied natural gas and gas-to-liquids (GTL), both inside and outside the country.
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as among the largest in the world, all located off the coast of Cabo Delgado province.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant and then 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 the 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).
A third completed, smaller project also belongs to the Area 4 consortium and consists of a floating platform for capturing and processing gas for export, directly at sea, which started up in November 2022.
