Mozambique awards three gas to power projects

The National Petroleum Institute (NPI) has announced that the government of Mozambique, which has vast offshore gas resources, has awarded gas development projects in the Rovuma gas basin to Norway's Yara International, Shell Mozambique and GL Energy Africa.

The three companies have been awarded a total of up to 462 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. They are the successful bidders from a tender launched in August 2016, which attracted 14 companies: Mitsui, Engro Fertilizer, Shell Mozambique BV, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), Yara International, Marubeni, GL Africa Energy, Muinvest, Auto-Gas, Epsilon, Jiangsu Sinochem Construction, Union-JNC-JSPDI-VBC-SAL Consortium, Gas Nosu, and MOTSE.

Yara International, will produce fertilizers and between 30 to 50 MW of electricity, Shell Mozambique will produce diesel and between 50 to 80 MW of electricity and GL Africa Energy will produce 250 MW of electricity from natural gas.

These projects will process part of the natural gas that will be extracted from existing large deposits in at least two blocks – Area 1 and Area 4 – in the Rovuma basin in northern Mozambique on the border with Tanzania. Rovuma Basin has the largest known gas reserves in the country holding an estimated 180 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The operators in the two areas are the US company Anadarko (Area 1) and the Italian company ENI (Area 4).

Humphrey Kariuki, Chairman of GL Africa Energy UK, said:

“We are delighted to have been selected by the Government of Mozambique to help harness the significant potential of the Rovuma Basin gas reserves. Through state-of-the art power projects such as the Nacala District facility, GL Africa Energy is playing a vital role in generating affordable power to address the significant energy shortfall in the region and drive the development of the African Continent.”