Mozambique readies for sixth offshore licensing round
The government of Mozambique on November 23 called on interested parties to be aware of a pending licensing round for exploration and production offshore.
The nation’s sixth licensing round begins November 25 for 16 blocks across the Rovuma gas basin, Angoche, the Zambezi Delta and in Save. All told, Mozambique is offering access to more than 92,000 km2.
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The Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP, or National Petroleum Institute) said the licensing round comes three months after the approval of a new upstream hydrocarbon strategy that provides the basis for continuous exploration offshore. It sets a time frame of holding new public tenders every two years, rather than previous legislation outlining a three-year period.
“The global energy sector faces several challenges such as energy transition and the need to use renewable and clean energies such as natural gas, which is Mozambique's energy potential, to contribute to new approaches for the development of the energy sector in the long term,” a statement from the INP read.
The announcement comes weeks after Italian energy company Eni said a floating liquefaction facility was on its way to the Coral South project off the coast of Mozambique.
Eni is the delegated operator at Coral South, working alongside Exxon Mobil, China’s CNPC, Portugal’s GALP, Korea Gas and the National Oil Company of Mozambique. The partners held a sailing-away ceremony for the Coral-Sul floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility before its deployment to Mozambique.
The Italian company said the FLNG has a liquefaction capacity of 3.4mn mt/year and will put an estimated 450bn m3 of natural gas into production at the offshore basin.
Fabrication of the floating facility began in 2018. Operations are slated to begin next year.
Mozambican gas development is not without risk. French major TotalEnergies paused work at its LNG facility early this year after attacks in gas-rich north Mozambique by Islamist insurgents.