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Sweden’s Sweco has been awarded a $5.2m consultancy contract for a rehabilitation project to refurbish the five generators at the 2,075MW Cahora Bassa hydropower plant. Sweco will identify the scope of the rehabilitation requirement, draft technical specifications, provide technical support for contractor procurement, and supervise construction works. The project is scheduled for completion in 2025. Brazil’s Intertechne Consultores is also a partner for the project.

Chevron’s proposed acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum will have little immediate impact on development plans for Mozambique Area 1, where a final investment decision is now expected in early May. The deal is mainly focused on Anadarko’s position in US shale and the Gulf of Mexico but will also expand and diversify Chevron’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) business and create a fourth supermajor alongside ExxonMobil, BP and Shell.

Any administration would be hard-pressed to cope with Cyclone Idai. For central Mozambique, southern Malawi and eastern Zimbabwe, the catastrophe is piled onto already often poorly served communities and underperforming governments. Even after the most severe storm hit on 14-15 March, news outlets and the donor community took time to appreciate the scale of the disaster – as mosque killings, Brexit and Donald Trump jostled for airtime that might have helped generate more immediate support.

Anadarko Petroleum has said an attack on 21 February in which a contractor was killed did not target its gas project and it would carry on preparing for a final investment decision (FID). “The evidence to date indicates both the convoy and a car belonging to a contractor encountered an existing event, which did not directly target our contract personnel, nor the LNG project, nor airstrip,” Anadarko said in a statement on 5 March. “The Mozambique government recognises security in the region requires additional attention and action.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has continued its international expansion with agreements with Eni to take 25.5% in Block A5A in Mozambique’s Angoche Basin and 30% in the Tarfaya Offshore Shallow licence offshore Morocco.The Mozambique block is adjacent to ExxonMobil’s A5B, in which QP took 10% in December, along with stakes in Z5-C and Z5-D in the Zambezi Basin.In Morocco, Eni is performing geological and geophysical studies as part of the work programme for the first exploration period.

The Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy has invited expressions of interest by 22 March from international consultants to provide transaction advisory services for the long-mooted Mphanda Nkuwa hydropower project on the Zambezi River in Tete province. Bids are also sought by 29 March for a project director to coordinate the work of the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project Implementation Office, project consultants and contractors.

A contractor working for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has been killed in an attack in northern Mozambique as the company moves closer to a final investment decision on its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project with two more sale and purchase agreements (SPAs).Anadarko said two related attacks occurred around 20km from the construction site on the road from Mocimboa da Praia to Afungi at about 5pm local time on 21 February. The first involved a convoy where six contractors sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Anadarko Petroleum and its partners in Mozambique LNG Area 1 have taken a major step towards a final investment decision (FID) with the signing of sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) with CNOOC, Tokyo Gas/Centrica and Shell.The three long-term SPAs total 6.1m t/yr, bringing the project’s total volume contracted in long-term sales to 7.58m t/yr, just short of the 8.5m t/yr Anadarko says it needs to secure financing for the 12.88m t/yr development. Anadarko has said that further deals are under negotiation as it approaches its stated goal of reaching FID during H1 this year.

Mozambique-based off-grid solar company SolarWorks! has agreed a $2m multi-currency debt facility organised by specialist off-grid debt firm SunFunder and US-based currency hedging company MFX Solutions. SolarWorks! will use the facility for working capital to expand its operations in the country. The company has been active in Mozambique since 2011 and recently began operating in Malawi. It provides a range of solar devices, from basic systems comprising lights and charging points to more powerful systems for small businesses and middle-income households. The facility is MFX Solutions’ first in Mozambique.

Eni and ExxonMobil, partners in Mozambique’s Area 4 liquefied natural gas (LNG) scheme, announced on 28 December that they have secured enough offtake commitments to move to a final investment decision (FID) on their planned onshore development in 2019. A joint statement gave no figures but said they had secured LNG offtake commitments from affiliated buyer entities of the partners, which it described as “a key milestone enabling the participants to rapidly move toward a final investment decision in 2019 on the first phase of the Rovuma LNG project”.

French renewable power developer Neoen has signed a 30-year concession agreement with the government for its 41MWp Metoro solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Cabo Delgado. Concession agreements come late in the development process in Mozambique and Neoen head of communications Axelle Vuilermet told African Energy that financial close was “very close”. Selection of the main contractors is under way and preferred suppliers are expected to be finalised soon.Metoro is 75% owned by Neoen and 25% by Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM) and is backed by the French development agencies Agence Française de Développement and Proparco.

Wentworth Resources has opted to relinquish the onshore Tembo Block in the Rovuma Basin where it had been seeking a partner to appraise the 2014 Tembo-1 gas discovery. The company said in October that a re-evaluation of the Tembo discovery had indicated that it was unlikely to be commercial. Insecurity in the region forced the company to suspend activities earlier this year and in June the National Petroleum Institute granted a one-year extension to its appraisal licence.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has signed a deal with ExxonMobil to acquire a 10% interest in three offshore exploration blocks in the Angoche and Zambezi basins. Contracts for the blocks, A5-B in the Angoche Basin and Z5-C and Z5-D in the Zambezi Basin, were finally signed with the US supermajor in October this year, following a licensing round launched in October 2014. Assuming the deal is approved, the other shareholders will be operator ExxonMobil with 50%, state oil company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (20%) and Rosneft (20%).

There are grounds for optimism that Mozambique’s planned $30bn liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project could provide a foundation for the ailing economy’s resurgence. Mozambique’s exports could plug a mid-2020s global LNG supply gap, and Portuguese gas distributor Galp’s vice-chairman, Carlos Gomes da Silva, has said that the “next decade should be the Mozambique decade”. The sums involved are substantial: petroleum and energy minister Max Tonela has said the Eni and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation projects are expected to provide the government with an estimated $77bn over their lifespans.

Anadarko Petroleum and its Area 1 partners have executed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power Company Inc for the supply of 280,000 t/yr of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for 15 years. “This SPA further demonstrates the steady progress we continue to make toward our target of an affirmative final investment decision during the first half of 2019.