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Gas leaders to gather for summit as Mozambique plots its energy future
Energy bosses from several nations to meet local government officials and Mozambican companies
There’s a hidden treasure just off the northern coast of Mozambique, but it’s got nothing to do with pirates: lurking beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean are at least 100-trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. That makes Mozambique Africa’s third-largest holder of such proven reserves after Nigeria and Algeria, in that order. Some estimates even raise the bar to 180-trillion cubic feet of reserves. Internationally, Mozambique is ranked 54th – a long way behind the gas riches of first-placed Russia’s 48,700-trillion cubic feet of gas reserves or second-placed Iran’s 33,600-trillion cubic feet (both according to 2013 estimates). Even so, mining the reserves in the area known as the Rovuma Basin could radically change the fortunes of a country that in April this year declared it had $1.3-billion in debt it could not pay, which led to a downgrade by rating agencies. The large reserves, worth tens of billions of dollars, have attracted oil and gas companies from across the world,...
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