The head of state was responding to questions, in the context of the V Summit between Mozambique and Portugal, which is attended by the Portuguese prime minister, António Costa, in Maputo, on how Mozambican gas can make up for the shortage in Europe, given the deterioration of Russian supply after the invasion of Ukraine.

“We made the first platform: what is the possibility of making another one? There are studies in that direction,” the PR admitted, adding that he has had meetings with gas exploration companies, Italian, French and their partners to see the possibility of a new platform.

Nyusi acknowledged that there is a lot of demand, hence the ongoing studies, stating that the goal is to have, in a way, a greater production that can feed the European and even the African market.

About the Rovuma Basin

The Rovuma Basin has some of the largest gas reserves in the world and there are three exploration projects approved, two that take the gas from the bottom of the sea for liquefaction on land and another one in the open sea, with an autonomous floating platform (called Coral Sul).

Of the three, only the smallest, in the Indian Ocean, is about to export gas, because the other two (from Total and Exxon Mobil), on land, are stopped due to armed violence in Cabo Delgado province.

The entire production of the Coral Sul project will be sold to BP for 20 years, with an option to extend it for another 10, i.e., to meet more demand, such as that now arising in Europe, it would be necessary to find other ways to extract and process the Rovuma gas, bypassing the violence in Cabo Delgado.