Supplying natural gas to the cities of Maputo and Marracuene will increase the use of this fuel in Mozambique and drive the appearance of new industrial units, said Estevão Pale, the chief executive of state oil and gas company Companhia Moçambicana de Hidrocarbonetos (CMH).

According to Pale, after building the natural gas supply network in the city of Maputo there were already companies consuming natural gas directly.

When the natural gas processing plant started operating in Temane ten years ago the opportunities available in Mozambique to use natural gas were quite limited and a choice was made to base initial development on an already established market, such as South Africa.

This situation is changing, according to the chief executive of Sasol International, Ebbie Haan, as Mozambique has become one of the fastest-growing economies in southern Africa.

With a rise in consumption of electricity new challenges have emerged in terms of the availability of the network. This has led the government to encourage pioneering projects based on natural gas. One example is the partnership set up by Sasol with Mozambicans ate power company Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM) to build a power plan with capacity to generate 140 megawatts of electricity.

Sasol’s vice president, who recently presented a summary of 10 years of partnerships with Mozambique, said that the company was seeking business opportunities across the country and did not discount its involvement in a gas pipeline between natural gas area in the north of the country and potential consumer markets in the south. (macauhub/MZ)