Communication - Presse
Sasol exported 2.6 billion gigajoules of natural gas in the last 20 years
Sasol exported 2.695 billion gigajoules of the 3.47 billion gigajoules produced in Mozambique over the past 20 years.
“This milestone not only put Mozambique on the regional map of natural gas producers, but also laid the foundations for the development of the oil sector at the national level,” President Nyusi said at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the creation of the National Petroleum Institute (INP) in Maputo.
Sasol has been exploiting gas from the Temane and Pande reserves in the province of Inhambane in Mozambique since 2004, with gas pipelines to South Africa and Maputo. The gas also supplies the Ressano Garcia power plant near the capital, and close to the border with South Africa.
According to the head of state, of the total 3.47 billion gigajoules produced by the South African company, 352 million gigajoules were consumed in the Mozambican market as commercial gas and also handed over as “royalties in kind”.
For Nyusi, the start of gas exploitation in Pande and Temane was one of the country’s greatest achievements in its efforts to harness its energy potential, laying the foundations for the development of the oil sector for the benefit of Mozambicans, which culminated in the discovery of reserves in the Rovuma basin, estimated at around 180 trillion cubic feet.
“In these years, the INP has launched six public tenders for the concession of areas for hydrocarbon research and production, located offshore and onshore. The initiatives have enabled the discovery of world-class natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin,” President Nyusi added.
In total, the country has awarded 20 exploration and production areas, with an investment of around US$9 billion for exploration and US$21 billion for projects in the development phase.
Mozambique has three development projects approved for the exploitation of the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado. Two of these projects are larger and envisage channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a factory to export it by sea in a liquid state. One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium) and the works progressed until they were suspended indefinitely, after an armed attack on Palma in March 2021, when the French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe. The other is the investment yet to be announced, led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium).
A third completed and smaller project also belongs to the Area 4 consortium and consists of a floating platform for capturing and processing gas for export, directly at sea, which started production in November, 2022.
