Mozambique has granted its top state-owned companies, including national oil firm ENH, a 30-year concession to build and operate natural gas facilities at the Port of Beira and the smaller Inhassoro site, the government said on Monday.
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 of the country that has delayed TotalEnergies’ LNG plant, despite some improvements in security.
The concession will be managed through a special-purpose vehicle formed by ENH, ports and railways company CFM, electricity company EDM and Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric (HCB), alongside technical and financial partners selected by government.
The exclusive deal covers a liquefied natural gas terminal, storage facilities and the 865-kilometre (537.5 mile) Rompco pipeline linking Mozambique’s gas fields to South Africa. Rompco is a public-private partnership between the Mozambican and South African governments, each holding 40%, and Sasol, which holds the remaining 20%.
“The project is based on a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) anchored in Beira and Inhambane and connected to the pipeline,” the National Petroleum Regulator (INP) said on its website.
The government approved the concession last week as efforts by TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil push ahead with their own LNG projects.
The new infrastructure aims to support the transportation of LNG from different projects in the Rovuma Basin, where TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil are active, while also boosting industrialisation by ensuring that a share of gas enters the domestic market, INP said.
“This is the logistical backbone that was missing to transform the potential of Rovuma gas into real value for the country,” said a Sasol spokesperson.
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf, editing by Louise Heavens)