Big investments to develp Pemba and Palma

An amount of U$30
billion has been invested
by the Mozambican
government to develop the
country’s northern ports
to improve its prospects of
liquefied natural gas (LNG)
exports.
Nelson Ocuane,
president of the state
oil company ENH,
commented that the
investments would be
made to develop the
northern ports of Pemba
and Palma. He said a ‘giant
logistics base’ and LNG
production plants were
planned for gas produced
from offshore fields in the
Rovuma Basin which is
being developed by United
States’ oil major Anadarko
Petroleum Corp and Italy’s
Eni.
“In an initial phase,
liquefaction units with
a total capacity for 20
million tonnes a year of
LNG will be built and
operated. The investment
to be made tops $30
billion,” Ocuane said. The
initial exports from 2018
will come from a first LNG
train of 5 million tonnes a
year, with overall capacity
for the industry to be
ramped up subsequently to
20 million tonnes per year.
Simon Ashby-Rudd, the
Standard Bank Group’s
head of oil and gas, said
that Mozambique had
arrived on the world energy
map and would be a major
player in the liquefied
natural gas (LNG) markets
going forward.
“This is great news for
the movement of freight
in general as it serves as a
major incentive to boost
infrastructure at ports and
airports as well as access
roads to these facilities,”
he said.
He noted that
Mozambique’s LNG
export potential would
be hampered without
the right infrastructure.
“There needs to be policy
consistency and gas
infrastructure funding
models that will attract
long-term infrastructuretype
returns,” said
Ashby-Rudd.