The Government of Mozambique expects Exxon Mobil to take its Final Investment Decision (FID) and invest approximately $27 billion for the exploration of Mamba gas field onshore Area 4 of the Rovuma basin by 2019, @Verdade reports.

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Ernesto Max Tonela, revealed past Wednesday (16) to Members of Parliament that the government is “working with Exxon Mobil for the beginning of the discussion of the respective Development Plan later this year, and hope the Final Investment Decision of the third project of liquefied natural gas production to occur in 2019 “.

Negotiations with the US multinational are related with the future exploration of the Mamba gas field, a complex of reservoirs located in Area 4, but of them transcend to the Area 1 Prosperity gas complex – this area is called unified Mamba-Prosperity.

“Mamba-Prosperity is a natural gas field that transcends the limits of concession blocks for Area 1 (Anadarko and its partners) and Area 4 (ENI and its partners),” the Chairman of the Board of Directors (PCA) of the National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH), Omar Mitha, explained exclusively to @Verdade , pointing out that “the field Mamba is not a single field, but a portion of the unified field belonging to two blocks on the part of Area 4”.

No need for another resettlement

Omar Mitha said that “Exxon Mobil is the operator in Midstream and Downstream only in Area 4,  which the object of development is Mamba field, in accordance with Decree 2014 on Project developments of the Rovuma Basin. For the Area 1 (Prosperidade), the activities will be led by Anadarko, the block operator at an early stage.”

“At this stage in the development of the unified field (Prosperity-Mamba), the operators (Exxon Mobil and Anadarko) of both areas should develop activities in a coordinated manner in order to rationalize resources and optimize the use of gas according to the industry best practices. For subsequent phases, the partners of both areas (Area 1 and Area 4) shall appoint the Single Operator, which respond by both concessions, only fr the unified field,” Mitha explained in an interview by e-mail.

The ENH CEO added that “in the context of unification of fields, currently Anadarko is to pursue the implementation of the resettlement plan, representing the dealers of Areas 1 and 4, so Exxon Mobil does not need to carry out another resettlement.”

Dealers expect to invest approximately $27 billion 

In what will be the third project of liquefied natural gas production in country, after Coral South in Area 4 ( whose project started in June 2017) and Golfinho & Atum at Area 1 (which is expected to DFI in 2019), there are even greater reserves and their exploitation catapult Mozambique to lead the export of hydrocarbon in the region.

“The Mamba gas field (Area 4) and Prosperidade (Area 1) has a total of about 75 trillion cubic feet, according to the most recent joint studies. Of this amount about 24 trillion cubic feet will be developed in the initial stage and 12 trillion cubic feet for each area. To Area 4, the amount of resources in the Mamba complex is about 50 trillion cubic feet include other independent reservoirs resources,” Omar Mitha said.

The ENH strong man also revealed that: “For the development of liquefaction infrastructure onshore and assembly equipment offshore, including the upstream, dealers expect to invest approximately $27 billion.”

“Note that this investment is only planned for the first phase, which includes the construction of two liquefaction units on the ground. Subsequent phases will also have its investment which will be elaborated before the respective development plan submission,” Omar said.source:@Verdade