The state-owned company Portos e Caminhos-de-Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) launched its maritime support operation for the oil and gas sector this Saturday, July 27, through its subsidiary CFM Logistics.
During the launch ceremony, CFM’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Agostinho Langa, highlighted the moment as a “gigantic challenge and an extraordinary opportunity”. Langa said that the new operation not only fulfills a government mandate to support oil and gas projects, but also contributes significantly to Mozambique’s development.
CFM Logistics will be responsible for supporting oil and gas exploration and production activities, both onshore and offshore. For this purpose, two tugboats and two pilot boats have been acquired. “Our subsidiary will be involved in the entire chain of production, logistics and marketing of energy resources, especially considering the important natural gas discoveries in the Rovuma basin and the production potential in the southern region, in Pande and Temane,” explained Langa.
With almost 130 years in business, CFM sees this new subsidiary as an excellent opportunity to expand, diversify and renew its services. The company plans to invest in building new infrastructures and rehabilitating and expanding existing ones in order to meet the growing demand for logistics in the oil and gas industry.
Mozambique has the third largest natural gas reserves in Africa, estimated at 180 million cubic feet. The country currently has three development projects approved to exploit the reserves in the Rovuma basin, one of the largest in the world, located off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
Two of these projects are large-scale and include channeling the gas from the seabed to land, where it is cooled in a factory before being exported in a liquid state. One of the projects is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium), whose works were suspended after an armed attack on Palma in March 2021. TotalEnergies has announced that it will only resume work when the area is safe. The other project, which has not yet been announced, is led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium).
A third, smaller project, also belonging to the Area 4 consortium, consists of a floating platform for capturing and processing gas directly at sea. This project began operations in November 2022.
