Mozambique appoints new energy minister

Leticia Klemens, former chairwoman of the International Bank of Mozambique and of the Association of Mozambican Businesswomen, was appointed energy minister of the country on Thursday by President Filipe Nyusi.

The appointment comes weeks after Nyusi sacked her predecessor, Pedro Couto, without explanation and put him in charge of the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric power company.

Klemens is to oversee a key gas contract with the Italian energy giant Eni, which signed a 20-year agreement with BP on October 4 for LNG deliveries from the Coral South field off Mozambique. Eni and Mozambique are currently negotiating the terms of a joint project to build a floating LNG platform in the field. The facility would have a production capacity of 3.3 million tonnes of LNG per year and could be worth some USD 5.4 billion.

The field is part of massive offshore gas reserves totaling some 2.41 tcm (85 tcf), discovered six years years ago in the Area 4 concession near Mozambique. Its development could help the country to transform itself from one of the poorest in Africa into a middle-income state and a major LNG exporter.