The American energy company Anadarko has given the green light for the construction of a $25 billion gas liquefaction terminal in Mozambique, making it the largest LNG project on the continent.
Dolphin Tuna. This is the name of the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project ever approved in Africa. The announcement of the final investment decision, estimated at $25 billion, was made on Tuesday 18 June in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, and comes about ten years after the discovery of huge gas reserves (5 trillion cubic meters) off the coast of Cabo Delgado province in the north of the country. Present at the ceremony alongside Anadarko’s CEO, Al Walker, and other project partners (Japan’s Mitsui, Mozambique’s energy company ENH, Thailand’s PTT and India’s CGSB (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited), Bharat Petroleum Resources and Oil India), Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi welcomed the fact that this is « the largest foreign direct investment in[our] country’s history ».
In concrete terms, the green light from Anadarko marks the entry into force of the zone’s development plan and paves the way for the construction phase of the infrastructure needed to extract offshore gas, pump it onshore and liquefy it, before exporting it through LNG carriers. A logic of international gas supplier to which the CEO of Anadarko has returned at length. « As the world increasingly looks for clean forms of energy, Mozambique’s LNG project, led by Anadarko, is ideally located to meet growing demand, especially in the growing Asian and European markets, » the leader said in a statement.
Countries and large companies that are customers of the Mozambican LNG project (in blue on the map)
Source : Anadarko
If completed, the project, which provides supplies for several large public energy companies, is expected to transform Mozambique, now one of the poorest countries in the world ($420 GDP per capita), in a sustainable way. In the meantime, the initial benefits of the project will also benefit another beneficiary: the French group Total, which recently acquired Anadarko’s African assets.