Concessionaires invested $18.4B in Mozambican hydrocarbons over five years
File photo / Tokyo Gas Earth Port
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday visited the industrial complex operated by Tokyo Gas, the largest natural gas utility in Japan, and held talks with the company management.
The Minister of Mineral Resources and energy, Leticia Klemens, told reporters that, although there is so far no guarantee that Japanese companies will buy Mozambican gas, the Mozambican government is optimistic that purchases will be arranged.
“We know that Japan is reducing its consumption of gas, and so it’s important to close a deal with Tokyo Gas”, she said. “We’ve done our part, and now it’s up to Tokyo Gas”.
She was optimistic that “everything will go well, we are advancing at a good pace, and we hope that a deal will indeed be closed”.
For his part, the managing director of Tokyo Gas, Kentaro Kimoto, said the company is very interested in diversifying its sources of natural gas, and the potential supply of hydrocarbons from Mozambique opens excellent prospects for the company’s productive aspirations.
He said that Tokyo Gas currently imports an annual amount of around 14 million tonnes of gas from countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Australia and Qatar. This year it plans to start importing gas from the United States. But the companies interest in diversifying its sources means that it is looking favourably at the possibility of purchasing Mozambican gas.
Discoveries in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado indicate the existence of at least 160 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in areas operated by the Italian energy company ENI and by the Texas-based company Anadarko.
These discoveries mean that Mozambique has some of the largest known reserves of gas in the world, and it could become the third largest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), after Qatar and Australia.
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