A NEW proposal for a US$6bn, 2,600km gas pipeline from northern Mozambique to SA has attracted attention because of the political connections behind one of its main shareholders.And it has come into conflict with another partnership between an SA firm and members of Mozambique’s ruling elite, which also has ambitions to build a pipeline.The announcement of the African Renaissance Pipeline (ARP) project by JSE-listed SacOil on March 1 took analysts by surprise. SacOil announced its intentions over a year earlier, but had since gone quiet while attention shifted to whether the gas projects themselves would ever materialise.There are also serious doubts about the economic viability of a pipeline running the length of the country. Mozambique’s domestic gas market is too small to justify the expenditure, critics argue — even if it also exports to neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia.The main end consumer would have to be SA, but the distance between the Rovuma Basin and Johann...
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