Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi revealed last week the possibility of installing a second floating platform to extract and process natural gas in the Rovuma basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, to meet the growing demand for gas in Europe, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
‘We have installed the first platform and what is the possibility of making another one? There are studies in this direction for this to be accelerated. I have had meetings with companies that exploit gas. Italian and French companies and their partners’, Nyusi said in Maputo, after the 5th Bilateral Summit between Mozambique and Portugal, as part of the two-day visit that the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, is making to the country.
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‘I had meetings to see what can be done since there is a lot of demand’, he added. The Mozambican leader was answering questions from journalists about how Mozambican gas can make up for the shortage in Europe.
Nyusi acknowledged that the market exists, and there is heavy demand for gas. Hence the studies under way intend to accelerate production that can feed the African and European markets.
He recalled that some years ago, “after prospecting and having reached the conclusion that there was gas, I went on a joint mission to look for a market so that a feasibility study could be done. I went to many countries in Europe exactly to understand if there was a market or not and, also, a good market. Which means that the first steps have been taken and we already know which markets the gas will go to’.
The platform currently anchored off the Cabo Delgado coast is the Coral South gas extraction and liquefaction platform. It is the first such platform in deep waters and the first project of its kind in Africa.
The production (3.4 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year) will be sold to the British company BP under a contract lasting for 20 years, with an option to extend for another 10.
The platform has storage tanks on the hull and 13 modules above them, including a liquefaction plant, an eight-story module where 350 people can live, and a helicopter pad.
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The platform is in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin. It is operated by Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV), in which the Italian energy company ENI, CNPC of China, and the US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil hold a 70 percent participating interest.
The other members of the consortium – Galp of Portugal, KOGAS of South Korea, and Mozambique’s own National Hydrocarbon Company – each hold a 10 per cent stake.
