Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s National Petroleum Institute (INP) has announced that it will launch on Thursday the sixth licencing round for exploration for hydrocarbons. In this round, 16 new areas will be available: five in the Rovuma Basin, seven in the Angoche area (off the coast of Nampula province), two in the Zambezi Delta and two near the mouth of the Save river. In total, this covers an area of over 92,000 square kilometres. The process will last six months with the results being announced in October 2022.
According to INP chairperson Carlos Zacarias, “with this tender, we intend to assess the national petroleum potential, and the resources discovered will be made available to society to drive Mozambique’s socio-economic development”.
The launch ceremony, which can be viewed online at https://tinyurl.com/3psnbrme, will be addressed by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Max Tonela.
The event will reveal the evaluation criteria and other relevant information for the pre-qualification of the bidders.
Huge reserves of natural gas have already been found in offshore areas one and four of the Rovuma Basin off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado. In the south of the country, the Pande and Temane onshore fields, in Inhambane province, are already being exploited by the South African petro-chemical giant Sasol.
The politics behind the exploration and exploitation of natural gas is highly charged. Some argue that gas is a transition fuel offering huge improvements over coal and diesel, whilst others see it as impeding the energy transition by competing with renewable energy for investment.
The Rovuma Basin covers 17,000 square kilometres onshore and a further 12,500 square kilometres offshore.
Meanwhile, the Mozambique Basin, stretching from the Zambezi Delta to the border with South Africa, covers an area of half a million square kilometres.
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