Mozambique has granted its top state-owned companies a 30-year concession to build and operate natural gas facilities at the Port of Beira and the smaller Inhassoro site, a move aimed at transforming the country’s vast gas reserves into economic value.
The government approved the concession last week, with the National Petroleum Regulator announcing that the exclusive deal covers a liquefied natural gas terminal, storage facilities, and the 865-kilometer Rompco pipeline linking Mozambique’s gas fields to South Africa.
The concession will be managed through a special-purpose vehicle formed by national oil firm ENH, ports and railways company CFM, electricity company EDM, and Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric, alongside technical and financial partners selected by government.
“The project is based on a floating storage and regasification unit anchored in Beira and Inhambane and connected to the pipeline,” the National Petroleum Regulator said on its website.
Rompco is a public-private partnership between the Mozambican and South African governments, each holding 40 percent, and Sasol, which holds the remaining 20 percent. A Sasol spokesperson welcomed the development, stating, “This is the logistical backbone that was missing to transform the potential of Rovuma gas into real value for the country.”
The new infrastructure aims to support the transportation of LNG from different projects in the Rovuma Basin, where TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil are active, while also boosting industrialization by ensuring that a share of gas enters the domestic market.
Efforts by the Southern African country to develop its oil and gas reserves have been hampered by an ongoing Islamist-linked insurgency in the north that has delayed TotalEnergies’ LNG plant, despite some improvements in security. The government’s approval of this concession comes as efforts by TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil push ahead with their own LNG projects in the region.
Source: pgjonline.com