The investment to be made by the natural gas exploration consortium in Mozambique, led by the American oil company Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, amounts to approximately 20 billion US dollars.

Anadarko and its partners in the natural gas exploration consortium in Mozambique have just announced their final investment decision in what will be the largest ever foreign direct investment project in Mozambique, in an amount of roughly 20 billion US dollars. The “Mozambique LNG” project will also be the largest project finance deal ever developed in the African continent, and will pave the way for a real economic transformation in Mozambique.

According to Diogo Xavier da Cunha, Managing Partner at Miranda & Associados and the head of the Mozambican Jurisdiction Group, “This project – and the ensuing projects for the valorization of the large natural gas reserves discovered in the Rovuma Basin in the north of Mozambique – will contribute to a major economic transformation in the Country. It will undoubtedly be a unique opportunity for Mozambique to foster a much better future for younger generations, making better training and qualifications possible, creating more employment, and promoting the inclusion and development of the Mozambican private sector. For us at Miranda and for our colleagues at the Mozambican office of the Miranda Alliance, Pimenta e Associados, it fills us with immense pride that we have been able to actively participate in creating the necessary conditions to enable this project to materialize. We have been connected to Mozambique for more than 20 years, and we have always believed in the potential of the Country and its people. This project clearly shows that it is worth betting on Mozambique and on the Mozambicans”.

Miranda & Associados and the Mozambican office of the Miranda Alliance, Pimenta e Associados, have been assisting Anadarko since 2011/2012 in the development of the Mozambique LNG project, which aims at the exploitation of natural gas in the offshore Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin through its liquefaction for subsequent exportation to the international markets in the form of liquefied natural gas. This is only the first project to be developed from the Area 1 reserves, specifically the Golfinho-Atum Field, and it is expected that several additional liquefaction trains will be built for the valorization of the reserves of other fields, including the Prosperidade / Mamba filed shared with the Area 4 consortium led by Mozambique Rovuma Ventures (ExxonMobil and Eni).

It is expected that the construction of the project’s infrastructures be completed in about five years, and that the first LNG load be shipped one year later. The country’s economy is henceforth expected to grow more than 10% a year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other entities.