Osaka Gas Eyes Mozambique's Gas Riches

Japan’s Osaka Gas is looking to make upstream investment in offshore Mozambique, Reuters has reported citing a senior company official.

The Osaka-based company is also looking at cooperating with Tokyo Gas in buying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from one of the many projects planned from resources offshore the east African nation, Reuters quoted the official as saying.

A host of Japanese firms are showing interest in Mozambique’s gas rich regions. Mitsui & Co has a 20 percent stake in the Anadarko Petroleum-led Area 1 prospect. Earlier this week Inpex bought 25% in a licence from Statoil. The license consists of two blocks under one licence agreement and is located in areas 2 and 5 offshore Mozambique in the Rovuma basin.

Osaka Gas now imports about 8 million metric tonnes of LNG a year. By 2020, its annual purchases of LNG will have grown to around 10 million tonnes a year, of which about 20 percent will be linked to gas benchmarks instead of oil, Takayuki Tasaka, the company's associate director and general manager of corporate strategy department, told Reuters.