“Although the ENI group has announced it plans to buy a floating rig for liquefaction of the natural gas in its block this does not mean that it is going along a separate path to US company Anadarko Petroleum in the Rovuma basin projects,” the ENH chief executive said.

The recent publication by the ENI group of a tender to hire a company to provide the rig raised questions about the Italian group’s interest in joint development with Anadarko Petroleum of a natural gas liquefaction unit in Palma, northern Mozambique, as had previously been announced.

ENH, which represents the State’s interest in the Rovuma natural gas projects, has a 15 percent stake in Anadarko Petroleum’s concession (Area-1) and 10 percent of ENI concession (Area-4).

Noting that the project for construction of the plant in Palma is still being outlined by the Mozambican government, and the ENH CEO said that development of two liquefaction units may cost between US$10 billion and US$15 billion.

There is no consensus about the amount of funding required for the start of the project as Anadarko Petroleum projects investment of around US$15.7 billion, the International Monetary Fund estimates US$17.5 billion and the Mozambican government expects the projects to cost US$18.3 billion.

The Rovuma basin currently has six concession areas for hydrocarbon exploration and is estimated to contain around 180 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

The shareholder structure of Area-1 is made up of Anadarko Petroleum (26 percent), ENH (15 percent), Indian groups ONGC Videsh (20 percent) and BRPL Ventures (10 percent), Japan’s Mitsui&Co (20 percent) and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production (8.5 percent).

Area-4, as well as ENI (50 percent), includes China National Petroleum Corporation (20 percent), Korea Gas, Portugal’s Galp Energia and ENH, with 10 percent each.