Mozambique: Shell, Yara drop fertiliser, fuel plans; state seeking new investors

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Mozambique: Shell, Yara drop fertiliser, fuel plans; state seeking new investors

2:04 CAT | 19 Mar 2021

File photo: Lusa

Netherlands-based Shell and Norway’s Yara have dropped plans to invest in plants to produce fertilisers and fuels in Mozambique, the southern African country’s minister for mineral resources and energy told Lusa on Friday, adding that the government was looking for new investors for the projects.

The minister, Max Tonela, said that the two companies had dropped their plans to produce fertilisers and fuels based on natural gas because the selling prices initially foreseen for the plants’ output were now out of reach, making the investments unviable.

In Shell’s case, he noted, another consideration was the divestment process that the company is undertaking for oil sector operations around the world, as part of its commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

“The government is currently reviewing the list of companies that competed [in the 2016 public tender in which Yara and Shell were selected] and the proposals to be discussed” for the projects’ continuation, Tonela stressed.

He stressed that the fact that these two companies were bowing out would not discourage the government from its determination to use the share of natural gas pumped from the Rovuma basin earmarked for the domestic market to help drive industrialisation in the country.

“The industrialisation process based on the Rovuma gas is a priority of the government and it will happen,” he said.

Source: Lusa