Mozambique: Jangamo heavy sands to begin exports in 2024
File photo: Lusa
The lawyer who negotiated oil company Anadarko’s contracts with Mozambique says that the country will have to make a “huge effort” to train mega-projects staff, warning that this has not yet been done.
“A great effort will have to be made if Mozambique to train people able to match the demands of these projects. It is something that Mozambique has not yet done, which is intense investment in staff training and capacity building,” the lawyer, a partner at Miranda Law Firm and head of the the firm’s Mozambican Jurisdiction Group said.
In an interview with Lusa, the also chairman of the Board of Miranda Law Firm and head of the group of lawyers working for US oil company Anadarko for more than 10 years said he expected the mega-projects currently underway in Mozambique to be built within the anticipated deadlines, but noted that the country faced two major challenges.
“In the first place, Mozambique cannot afford not to take advantage of the many other resources and riches that it has, from the economic point of view. It cannot fail to take advantage of them in agriculture, for starters,” Diogo Xavier da Cunha said when asked if the country was prepared for the large investments and revenues that are coming in the gas sector, which he considered to be “a great challenge” for the country.
Then, he added, there is the issue of the local content law, which defines the degree of minimum involvement of Mozambican companies and work force in the megaprojects that are being launched in the area of liquefied natural gas.
“There will have to be a huge effort,” not only in staff training, but also in promoting the integration of entrepreneurs in value chains and “the production of goods and services by Mozambican companies” the lawyer says.
“It is such a sensitive matter that, even internally, it has not succeeded in generating consensus in the country about how it should be done and what concrete measures the law should have,” he concluded.
Miranda’s connection to US oil company Anadarko began in the late 2000s, a few years after the company entered Mozambique in 2005, Diogo Xavier da Cunha recalled. He is also the leader of the working group within the firm that addresses all legal issues related to Mozambique.
“We started working on the structuring of the natural gas project in 2012, first with the exploration contract, then with the specific legal regimes, and then in discussion with the government in 2013 and 2014 on the special legal regime for what became known as the Rovuma basin project,” Diogo Xavier da Cunha said.
Miranda also worked with Anadarko on the legal aspects of the project’s maritime facilities, the international liquefied natural gas terminal, using around 30 lawyers in Lisbon and its partner in Mozambique, Pimenta e Associados, led by Paulo Pimenta.
“We also collaborated on labour matters and special requests in which it was necessary to secure the views of the Mozambican treasury regarding the correct interpretation of some issues with very relevant implications in the economic part of the project, and we supported and discussed with the Government a more protocolled agreement about licensing, visas and issues related to customs clearance of equipment ” which will be essential for the exploitation of natural gas in the north of the country, Diiogo Xavier da Cunha relates.
Asked about the commitment of the Mozambican state to facilitating negotiations and how the issue of the country’s ‘hidden debts’ affected them, the lawyer said that Mozambique had showed a huge willingness to receive foreign investment, but that it was tough, hiring high-quality lawyers for the negotiations.
In the interview with Lusa following the approval by Anadarko of the $20 billion (EUR 17.6 billion) Final Investment Decision for the Rovuma basin project, da Cunha concludes: “The state’s willingness to facilitate this project is inextricable, because it is a project that can change everything with regard to Mozambique.”
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