The National Petroleum Institute (INP) has said that it wants to see the resumption of all liquefied natural gas (LNG) exploration projects in the Rovuma basin, and has called on investors to relaunch their investment bases in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
According to the organisation, there are solid signs of a return to normal social and economic life in many of the districts that were once occupied by terrorists, which is a good indicator that the conditions are in place for the projects to go ahead smoothly.
Speaking on Thursday 30 May at the Energy and Industry Conference (MEIS), the administrator of the Institutional and Business Development Department at the INP, Esperança Maculuve, encouraged TotalEnergies and other oil companies to reactivate their operations as soon as possible, given that the security situation is already at a reliable level.
‘There is an important role to be played by the concessionaires in Areas 1 and 4 of the Rovuma basin in the industrialisation and development of the region,’ she said.
She emphasised that the Coral Sul project, managed by ExxonMobil and Eni, ‘is an example that shows the enormous potential of gas projects in the country, since it has been chosen as one of the preferred energies for the energy transition’.
The administrator stressed that the INP is committed to maximising the window of opportunity that the resources represent for the country, pointing out that it has been in contact with potential investors.
The event is organised by the Mozambican Local Content Association (ACLM) and will take place in Cabo Delgado over two days (30 and 31 May) with the aim of reflecting on how to transform Mozambique into an energy and industrial centre. A similar session is planned for 6-8 June in Maputo.
‘There is an important role to be played by the concessionaires in Areas 1 and 4 of the Rovuma basin in the industrialisation and development of the region’
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves of the Rovuma basin, classified 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.
