Maputo, July 24, 2024 (Lusa) - Mozambique's government has approved the concession contract for oil exploration and production in the Angoche A6-C Offshore Area, involving Italian-owned Eni Mozambico, as operator, as well as Mozambique's own state-owned Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH).
The decision was taken at an ordinary meeting of the cabinet, according to a statement released on Tuesday by that body, explaining that the concession confers on the concessionaire "the exclusive right to conduct oil operations, with a view to producing oil, from the resources originating from one or more oil deposits, underground" within the limits of the concession area.
It also grants the "non-exclusive right to build and operate infrastructures for the production and transport of oil produced from subsoil oil deposits, within the limits of the area" under concession, off the coast of the provinces of Nampula and Zambézia, "unless there is available access to an oil or gas pipeline system or other existing infrastructures under reasonable commercial terms and conditions."
Mozambique's National Petroleum Institute (INP) announced in 2022 that a unit of Italy's state-owned Eni had submitted a proposal to explore areas made available in the then sixth tender for the Concession of Areas for Exploration and Production of Hydrocarbons, specifically area A6-C, as operator (wih 60%), with Mozambican state company ENH as partner (with the remaining 40%).
Mozambique has the third largest natural gas reserves in Africa, estimated at 180 million cubic feet.
The country currently has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant to export it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by France's TotalEnergies (in the Area 1 consortium) and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely after an armed attack on Palma in March 2021, when the French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe.
The other is the still unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil of the US and Eni (Area 4 consortium, onshore), while the Italian oil company has another offshore bloc that is already practically in full production.
PVJ/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
