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The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced on 10 August that it has awarded a $880,865 grant to Kuikila Investments for a feasibility study for a 78MW mobile gas power plant in Chokwé district in Gaza province. Kuikila will cover the remainder of the $1.26m cost. The study will be carried out by Delphos International over a period of around 12 months, the USTDA told African Energy, with financial close possible six months after the study is completed.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has finalised two agreements with the government which will allow it to design, build and operate the marine facilities for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique. This follows the publication of government decrees approving the agreements, known as the “marine concessions”.Anadarko is developing Mozambique’s first onshore LNG plant, consisting of two initial LNG trains with a total capacity of 12m t/yr to support the Golfinho/Atum field located entirely within Offshore Area 1.

Houston-based Sofec has announced that the development joint venture consisting of TechnipFMC and JGC Corporation has given it an engineering, procurement and construction contract to supply the turret mooring system for the Eni Coral South floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project. The FLNG facility will be designed to produce 3.4m t/yr of LNG and will be moored in 2,000 metres water depth in Area 4, offshore Mozambique. Eni and its partners announced a final investment decision for the project on 1 June.

State power utility Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) invites expressions of interest by 28 July from consultants to provide technical assistance for the development of large renewable energy projects through a public auction process. The four-year assignment, financed by the Agence Française de Développement under the European Union-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund, will support EDM in procuring technical studies aimed at identifying potential renewable energy projects, and setting up and implementing an auction process.

Prospects for revival of a project to build an interconnector between Mozambique and Malawi have been boosted with the presentation of an economic feasibility study for the scheme in Maputo on 27 June. The project dates back to 1998 when an initial memorandum was signed. Studies were completed and financing put together for the project in 2007, but it ran into political difficulties as relations between the two states soured in the later part of Bingu wa Mutharika’s presidency.

Following management changes and an upturn in its financing, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) was “redefined” as a more commercial and efficient organisation in 2016, the state utility’s chairman and chief executive Mateus Magala told the Africa Energy Forum (AEF) on 7 June. EDM has added 350MW generation capacity in the last two years, according to board member Carlos Youm – and expects to add 950MW in the next five years, providing the government approves further reforms, including cost-reflective tariffs. With the utility on a firmer footing, it will take “two years to establish the new normal”, Magala said.

President Filipe Nyusi has been working to raise Mozambique’s attractiveness to investors during a period when growth rates have dipped, and currency and political risks have risen. Promising signs have included a welcome easing of visa procedures and a more sympathetic ear given to major investors. The macroeconomic picture is improving: growth, which halved from its strong performance of recent years to 3.5% in 2016, will rise to 4.5% in 2017, with further improvement after that, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) chairman and chief executive Mateus Magala told the Africa Energy Forum (AEF) in Copenhagen.

Mineral resources and energy minister Leticia da Silva Klemens and Royal Dutch Shell executive vice-president, integrated gas ventures development Clare Harris have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Maputo on the allocation of gas from the Rovuma Basin for domestic use. Eni, Anadarko and their partners in the Rovuma Basin licences have agreed to make available a quantity of gas for the development of industrial projects in the Mozambique domestic market, and the MoU follows the results of a public tender for domestic gas development projects announced on 27 January.

President Filipe Nyusi was bound to make the most of the announcement that Eni and partners had reached a final investment decision (FID) to develop the $8bn Coral South floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in offshore Area 4; all drilling, construction and installation contracts for the 3.4m t/yr FLNG scheme in the Rovuma Basin were signed to great fanfare in early June.

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, has signed a participation agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to provide a $16.9m B loan to Central Solar de Mocuba (Cesom), the private sector developer of the 40MW Mocuba solar farm in Zambézia Province of northern Mozambique. In addition, EAIF is directly providing a $7m viability gap funding grant for the project raised from the PIDG’s Technical Assistance Facility.

Eni and its partners announced a final investment decision on 1 June for the $8bn Coral South floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) development offshore northern Mozambique.All the drilling, construction and installation contracts for the production facilities were signed at a ceremony in Maputo, as well as agreements with the Mozambican government for the regulatory framework and financing of the project. Coral South is the first project in the development of the huge gas resource discovered by Eni in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin.

AIM-listed Ncondezi Energy has suspended talks with Shanghai Electric Power (SEP) on its 300MW coal-to-power scheme in Tete province, saying the Chinese company had not come up with funding for the project. The companies signed a joint development agreement in January 2016 for SEP to invest up to $25.5m for a 60% stake in the project. Ncondezi said it would now talk to other potential partners that had expressed interest.

Wentworth Resources is starting a farm-out process for its Tembo Block onshore in the Rovuma Basin, ahead of an appraisal well on the Tembo-1 gas discovery planned for 2018. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation drilled Tembo-1 on the Rovuma Onshore Block in 2014, but opted to focus on the offshore, and pulled out, along with Maurel & Prom. Wentworth now has 85% in the Tembo Block, a smaller area of appraisal acreage of about 2,500km2 around the Tembo discovery. State oil company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos has the other 15%.

As hydrocarbons prices have pushed upwards after their slump, a degree of future planning has returned to the global gas market. New liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects are in prospect, led by Australia and the United States, but with a few schemes in Africa. In Mozambique’s Rovuma Basin, a final investment decision (FID) on Coral LNG, led by Eni and ExxonMobil, is expected by end-2017, for exports to Asia from the early/mid-2020s. As the industry builds up, Mozambique expects a big domestic dividend, with the Rovuma Basin also supplying domestic gas-to-power (GTP) projects.

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) has issued general procurement notices for detailed techno-economic feasibility studies for the Kolwezi-Solwezi and Zambia-Mozambique power interconnector projects, to be financed with a grant from the African Development Bank. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (IPPF) approved grants worth $3.88m in March for transmission interconnections between Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and between Zambia and Mozambique.