Mozambique's Energy Industry

Mozambique: Emerging Gas Market

Recent offshore discoveries have rapidly changed the fortune of Mozambique. Once a hydrocarbons backwater, the country now has the potential to become one of the world’s largest LNG exporters. In order to achieve this goal, reforms need to be made, both to hydrocarbons legislation, as well as to transport and infrastructure. To improve geological understanding of the country’s resources, the National Petroleum Institute commissioned a 2D-seismic survey of up to 19,000 kilometres offshore. Spectrum began collecting data, which will be used in future licensing rounds, in December 2017.

The industry continues to draw massive interest from IOCs, each ready to tackle the bottlenecks standing in the way of vast hydrocarbons wealth. Sasol expects to produce first oil in the country in 2020. Recent E&P activities in Areas 1 and 4 in the Rovuma Basin are particularly important.

The Coral discovery, located 240 kilometres northeast of Pemba in the Rovuma Basin Area 4, is operated by Eni East Africa, which plans to construct a floating LNG vessel on the site by 2021. In late 2017, Eni secured about USD 4.68 billion of loans for the project. The FID for Mozambique LNG, set to process natural gas from the Rovuma Basin Area 1 in Cabo Delgado, was reached in June 2019.