Mozambique Oil & Gas: LNG plant to employ 5,000 Mozambicans in north of the country

Construction of the plant that will process the liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be extracted from northern Mozambique will employ 5,000 Mozambicans, oil company Anadarko said.

“About five thousand Mozambicans are going to work during the construction phase of the liquefied natural gas plant and we expect to spend about US$2.5 billion in construction,” it added in a statement.

The factory is being built in the far north of the country, on the Afungi peninsula in the province of Cabo Delgado, some 2,500 kilometres from the capital Maputo on the border with Tanzania.

The consortium led by Anadarko is carrying out preparatory work in the field pending the final investment decision in 2019. “The project has already contracted goods and services estimated at US$850 million (EUR 744 million) over the last five years,” the note adds.

Anadarko is also developing a programme to support the certification of Mozambican companies to international standards and to implement a code of practice and a supplier registration system for the oil and gas industry in Mozambique.

The announcements were made after the company delivered 2.2 tons of seeds and 14 tons of fertiliser to about 800 farmers in the province of Cabo Delgado at the start of the new agricultural campaign.

The agricultural production of families in Cabo Delgado, especially the self-employed, has been under pressure due to armed attacks on remote villages in the region, which have been occurring for about a year.

The wave of violence has caused many residents to leave their properties, taking refuge in villages.

A late-September report from the Hunger Network’s Early Warning System (FEWS Net) seen by Lusa concludes that, instead of a “minimal risk” food security situation, the areas affected by the attacks are now exhibiting “stress”.

On a food insecurity scale from 01 to 05 (from minimal risk to hunger), the network places the coastal zone of Cabo Delgado at Level Two, but if the attacks continue “there may be signs of Level Three (crisis)”.

Source: Lusa