Comunicação - Imprensa
Area 4: ExxonMobil Remains Committed to LNG Project in the Rovuma Basin
Speaking after an audience in Maputo with the head of state, Daniel Chapo, the president of ExxonMobil Upstream Company, Dan Ammann, said that at the meeting the parties discussed various issues related to the project, with the company emphasising its important role in the communities of the region.
‘We also discussed how the government, ExxonMobil and its partners can work together to move forward with activities in Rovuma, for the benefit of everyone involved, boosting national development.’
The LNG production project has suffered several postponements due to armed insecurity in Cabo Delgado. The Defence and Security Forces (FDS) reported that they had already managed to restore state authority in all the districts that had been taken over by terrorists.
ExxonMobil recently announced that since 2017 it has invested more than 20 million dollars (1.2 billion meticals) in Mozambique as part of its local content development strategy, emphasising that it plans to direct more investments into the national economy through future projects.
The information was made public by the company’s Director of Public and Government Affairs in Mozambique, Armando Afonso, during a round table discussion on ‘Investing in African Energies’, organised by the African Energy Chamber and the Mozambique Energy Chamber. He emphasised that the expanding opportunities in the oil and gas sector are reinforcing ExxonMobil’s commitment to investing in local content.
On the same occasion, Afonso emphasised that the vast reserves in Area 4, the country’s privileged location, strategic access to the market and the low emissions profile of the Rovuma LNG project are the main drivers of ExxonMobil’s commitment.
The concessionaires for Area 4 are Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV) S.p.A, a joint venture co-owned by Eni, ExxonMobil and CNODC (70 per cent), Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos E.P. (10 per cent), Galp Energia Rovuma B.V. (10 per cent) and KOGAS Moçambique Ltd. (10 per cent).
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves of the Rovuma basin, classified as among the largest in the world, all located off the coast of Cabo Delgado province.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant and then exporting it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium) and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely following the 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 still unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium).
A third completed, 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 up in November 2022.
