Watch: More on terms for LNG terminals approved

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Watch: More on terms for LNG terminals approved

7:08 CAT | 22 Jun 2017

TVM

The Mozambican government on Tuesday approved the terms and conditions for two port terminals that will support the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

One is the LNG Maritime Terminal, and the other consists of the installations to be used to unload materials for the construction of the LNG plants. Two new companies will be set up to operate the terminals, namely the Mozambique LNG Marine Terminal Company, and the Sociedade Mozambique MOF.

At its weekly meeting on Tuesday, the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) approved the details of the contract under which the government will lease the terminals to the new companies.

Both terminals will be built in Palma district, the nearest point on the mainland to the offshore gas fields discovered in the Rovuma Basin. They will be controlled by the two operators – the American company Anadarko, the operator of Rovuma Basin Area One, and the Italian energy firm ENI, the operator of Area Four.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting of the Council of Ministers, government spokesperson Ana Comoana, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, said the terminals will make viable the transport of LNG, in accordance with the best practices of the international hydrocarbon industry.

“These two instruments are complementary and they seek to make operational a decree-law that was approved in 2014”, she said. “What is at stake here is clarifying the procedures”.

Anadarko and ENI would share the same facilities, she said “instead of each of the operators setting up their own infrastructures. This sharing should extend to other operators that may emerge in the natural gas area in the future, allowing the rational use of space, and creating conditions for environmental sustainability.”

The Council of Ministers also approved a new schedule of fees for the export of processed timber, plus a new set of export norms and procedures.

These norms maintain the current ban on the export of unprocessed logs, and extend the ban to the export of beams.

“The intention”, Comoana said, “is that logs should be processed inside the country”. The government wanted to encourage Mozambican timber processing industries, avoiding the export of unprocessed wood, and the subsequent import of finished wooden articles.