The Mozambican Government has approved a concession contract for Eni Mozambico and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) to explore and produce petroleum in the Angoche A6-C Offshore Area.
The decision was taken at an ordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, according to a statement released this morning by that body, explaining that the concession gives the concessionaire “the exclusive right to conduct petroleum operations with a view to producing oil from resources originating from one or more oil deposits, underground,” within the limits of the concession area.
It also confers the “non-exclusive right to build and operate infrastructure for the production and transportation of petroleum produced from underground deposits, within the limits of the” concessioned area, offshore the provinces of Nampula and Zambézia, “unless there is availability access to an existing oil or gas pipeline system or other infrastructure under reasonable commercial terms and conditions.”
The National Petroleum Institute (INP) of Mozambique announced in 2022 that the Italian oil company ENI submitted a proposal to explore areas made available in the then sixth Licensing Round for the Concession of Areas for Research and Production of Hydrocarbons, in this specific case the A6-C area, as operator (60%), with Mozambican state-owned company ENH as partner (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 explore 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 plan to channel gas from the seabed to land, cool it in a factory, and export it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium), and the works progressed until they were suspended for an indefinite period after an armed attack on Palma in March 2021, with the French energy company declaring at the time that it would only resume work when the area was safe.
ExxonMobil and Eni, leading the Area 4 consortium, have yet to announce an investment, while Eni’s other offshore project is already nearly in full production.
