November 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, officially announced this Sunday the departure of the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo ship at the beginning of international exports from the huge deposits that the African country hosts, which could become one of the ten major producers in the world.
The cargo ship ‘British Sponsor’, owned by BP, has already left for Europe from the Coral Sul floating facilities operated by Eni SpA, capable of producing 3.4 million tons of LNG per year, at a time of international tension over the lack of energy supply due to the war in Ukraine.
“Today, Mozambique enters the annals of world history as one of the countries that exports liquefied natural gas, which, in addition to representing an alternative source of supply, contributes greatly to the energy security of the countries with the highest consumption,” Nyusi has made it known in a statement collected by the ‘Jornal do Noticias’.
Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world, has its hopes pinned on the deposits off its northern coast, which could attract up to 120 billion euros in investment over the next few years.
The country has yet to resolve a serious security crisis, especially in Cabo Delgado, the scene since October 2017 of attacks by Islamist militants known as Al Shabaab, unrelated to the group of the same name that operates in Somalia and maintains ties with Al Qaeda.
Since mid-2019, they have mostly been claimed by the Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), which has intensified its actions since March 2020 and is concentrating its activity in industrial areas of companies such as TotalEnergies.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Mozambique’s finance minister, Max Tonela, was “very optimistic” that the company will adopt a decision in March 2023 to return to work in Cabo Delgado. “What Total has required is a long-term security guarantee and the government believes that the necessary conditions are in place,” he said.
