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MMEC 2024: “By 2040, We Will Have Produced 50 Million Tonnes of LNG” – ENH

MMEC 2024: “By 2040, We Will Have Produced 50 Million Tonnes of LNG” – ENH

The Commercial and New Business Manager at Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), Pascoal Mocumbi, said this Thursday, May 2, that with the second platform that oil company Eni is planning, production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is expected to reach 50 million tonnes by 2040.

He was speaking at the 10th edition of the Mozambique Mining and Energy Conference and Exhibition (MMEC), which is taking place in Maputo, on the panel entitled ‘Unlocking Mozambique’s LNG Potential: Promoting Optimum Investment in the Entire Gas Value Chain’.

‘Our partner Eni is already considering a second platform. And it will have a slightly larger quantity than the first. By this we mean that between 2028 and 2030, Mozambique will have a production of around 30 million tonnes of LNG per year,’ said Pascoal Mocumbi, noting: “with the amount of gas we have in the Rovuma Basin, we can consider that by 2040 we will have a production of 50 million tonnes.”

Mocumbi explained that this was a way of provoking the partners and operators in Mozambique to boost oil activities.

‘We have to take advantage of these projects to industrialise our country, increasing exports. We have higher quality gas than some of our competitors, because ours is dry, which allows us to produce at a lower cost than other organisations.’

Pascoal Mocumbi – Commercial and New Business Manager at Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH).

The source added that another competitive advantage in the gas business is the country’s location. ‘We are located in a central position in relation to the main markets (Asia and Europe). And we are already seeing this competitive advantage in reality,’ he said, explaining that ’the buyer of gas for the Coral Sul project – the first LNG production project in Mozambique – when he has to decide where in the world to take the product, the only element in the decision is the price, because the distance between the two markets is interesting. So this gives the buyer additional flexibility.’

On the same occasion, Pascoal Mocumbi spoke about the Mozambique LNG project, which he explained had been approved in 2019. ‘Unfortunately, in 2021, after construction had started, the project stopped. If it hadn’t been interrupted, today we would at least have the first LNG train in production and the first ships being transported to the international market.’

Methanol production

Also in his speech, the head of ENH’s Commercial and New Business area spoke about the development of research into methanol production in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.”ENH recently finalised a feasibility study for methanol production. We are looking at a production capacity of around three thousand tonnes a year to be made in Afungi,’ he said.

‘When we went to present this project to our senior managers at the company, the questions they raised were: why don’t we think about more than methanol? Why don’t we think about a petrochemical? So we’re currently updating this research to add fertiliser production. We hope to have the study complete and ready to present by the end of May,’ he explained, emphasising: “when we look at this feasibility study, we see that there is potential to develop an industry adjacent to the gas projects being implemented by our partners (Mozambique LNG and Rovuma LNG).”

Markets for the sale of LNG

See Also

Commenting on the possibility of taking the gas to Nacala, Nampula province, Pascoal Mocumbi explained that some of the alternatives the company is considering include transporting the product via a pipeline to Nacala. The other alternative is to take this gas in liquid form (LNG) to the potential market in the south of the country, namely Ressano Garcia, as there are around 450 megawatts of energy to be produced from gas in this part of the country.

‘We know that the Pande-Temane project, in Inhambane province, which started producing 20 years ago, is already at a low volume stage, in other words, the reservoirs are being reduced, which means that this gas will come to an end. So we need to find an alternative to continue supplying the product to the existing plants at the moment,’ he said, pointing out that the Matola terminal was considered as a solution, as it is already very advanced, with a design and a concession allocated by the government.

‘We believe that this terminal will initially be able to bring in LNG and will be able to supply not only the Mozambican market but also the immediate market, which is South Africa. We are looking very closely at South Africa because we rely on Sasol [the South African oil company] to sell our energy solutions. We also have the regional market (Southern Africa),’ he concluded.

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