Mozambique: National companies encouraged to assume crucial role in gas projects – AIM report

The Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME), Estêvão Pale, calls on national companies to assume a crucial role in the value chain of gas projects, through partnerships with specialized foreign entities. According to the minister, who was speaking at a meeting held in Maputo with the country’s Confederation of Business Associations (CTA), gas projects taking place in the country open space for enormous business opportunities for national companies. He explained that the training component is expected to provide capacity building for 15,734 Mozambicans, with an estimated expenditure of 126 million US dollars.

“The capacity building of small and medium-sized enterprises is expected to reach 355 companies, during the construction phase, and approximately 1,500 companies during the operational phase”, he said. According to Pale, the concept resulting from six concession tenders in the hydrocarbon exploration area opens a new front, allowing national companies to position themselves from the initial phase of the oil cycle, monitor the generation of technical data, understand the needs and future operations of the projects, and prepare to integrate into more complex financing chains. “The recent challenges in the energy market due to geopolitical tensions and the volatility of fuel prices reinforce the need to accelerate solutions with vehicular natural gas, gas-to-energy conversion, and the expansion of urban and rural electric mobility”, he said.

“When we talk about the exploration of our resources, we should not limit ourselves to analyzing the existing potential, nor just the volume. We want Mozambican companies to participate so that these objectives can be achieved”, he added. The minister also said that the country must shift projects for vehicular natural gas and gas pipelines to the domestic market, “which open opportunities for the private sector.” For his part, Álvaro Massingue, CTA chairman, said that the country is currently at a historical crossroads, especially because “few countries in the world simultaneously possess abundant mineral resources, world-class natural gas reserves, high energy potential, vast arable land, and a privileged geostrategic location to serve global regional markets.” According to Massingue, the strategic use of natural gas lies not only in its export in the form of LNG, but above all in its capacity to boost industrialization, revitalize value chains, and strengthen the competitiveness of the national economy.