FINAL INVESTMENT DECISION

The Mozambican government and the partners in the consortium exploiting the natural gas resources in Area One of the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, on Tuesday signed the Final Investment Decision for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which will be the largest foreign investment in the history of Mozambique.The total investment is around 25 billion US dollars. 14 billion dollars will come from bank loans, and 11 million from the capital of the partners in the Area One Concession.The agreement on the Final Investment Decision was signed by the Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Max Tonela, and by Al Walker, chairperson of the US company Anadarko, which heads the consortium.

President Filipe Nyusi, who witnessed the signing, declared the ceremony was “the guarantee of exploiting a resource that is fundamental for the development of Mozambique. Today the present meets the future”.
“This investment decision closes long and difficult negotiations”, said Nyusi. “We own world class gas reserves. These reserves present unique opportunities for growth, expansion of the economy, and rapid increase in our gross domestic product”.
He called for “calm and good sense” and recognition that “the results will not come today or tomorrow. They will come with time”. Expectations needed to be managed, since “we must take into account that the return on the investment will take time”.
“We must know how to take advantage of our natural resources to invest in key sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, tourism and infrastructures, as well as social sectors such as education and health”, said Nyusi. He hoped to see rural households advance from subsistence agriculture to commercial farming. The Mozambican government, he added, is well aware that development cannot be managed in an environment of political uncertainty or insecurity, and pledged continued efforts to secure effective peace, through the government’s dialogue with the former rebel movement Renamo. He denounced the terrorist attacks by armed gangs in Cabo Delgado, apparently inspired by islamic fundamentalism, who were massacring innocent people and looting their property. Al Walker told the ceremony “We are not talking about an opportunity that comes once in a generation. This goes beyond that and is something for several generations, and we are very pleased to announce it today”.
“All the conditions are in place, and now we shall advance to the construction phase”, said Walker.

He predicted that the Area One LNG will double Mozambique’s Gross Domestic Product, and create thousands of jobs.The Under-Secretary of Economic Affairs in the US Department of Commerce, Karen Kelley, said the “historic partnership” between the Mozambican government and Anadarko will open opportunities for further US investment. “Our presence here shows that we believe in the growth of Mozambique in the long term”, she declared.The Area One LNG project involves the construction of two liquefaction plants (known as “trains”) on the Afungi Peninsula in the Cabo Delgado district of Palma, producing 12.88 million tonnes of LNG a year. The project requires the resettlement of villagers from Afungi to a new town. The Minister of Land, Environment and Rural Development, Celso Coreia, told reporters that the resettlement town will be inaugurated within the next month.

Anadarko holds 26.5 per cent of Area One and is the operator. Its partners in the Consortium are the Japanese company Mitsui (20 per cent), PTTEP of Thailand (8.5 per cent), the three Indian companies ONGC Videsh, Bias Rovuma Energy, and BRPL Ventures (each with ten per cent), and Mozambique’s own National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH – 15 per cent).Anadarko will not be operator for much longer, since the company is being sold to Occidental Petroleum, and the French energy giant Total has agreed to buy all of Anadarko’s African assets, including Rovuma Basin Area One from Occidental.

Predicting Mozambique’s 15 October Election

On 15th  October  2019 Mozambicans  will  be  voting  for  the  sixth  time  in  presidential  and legislative  elections  following  the  country’s  founding  multiparty  election  in  1994.  The founding,  second  and  third  elections,  respectively  in  1994,  1999  and  2004,  included votes  for  positions  of  the  executive  president  and  representatives  in  the  national parliament;  and  the  fourth  and  fifth  elections,  respectively,  in  2009  and  2014  entailed votes  for  the  executive  president  and  both  the  representatives  of  the  national  and provincial  parliaments.  The  forthcoming  2019  election  will  be  different.    It  will  entail voting  for  the  executive  president,  representatives  of  the  national  and  provincial parliaments  and,  for  the  first  time,  voting  for  the  positions  of  provincial  governors  as  a result  of  a  constitutional  amendment  in  mid-2018  on  decentralization. 

1      This  Briefing  Paper  aims  to  analyses  factors  that  might  affect  the  outcome  of Mozambique’s  elections.  Why  study  elections?  Not  least  because  they  are  fascinating events  but  also  because  they  provide  an  insight  into  the  levels  of  participation, representation  and  democracy  in  a  given  society.  The  founding  election  in Mozambique mobilized  an  “enormous  information  network  covering  the  entire  country, involving  almost  all  of  the  country’s  broadcasting,  video  and  advertising  companies, dozens  of  related  institutions  and  thousands  of  young  Mozambicans  who  were  the great  communicators  of  this  process  in  their  communities: the  voter  education  agents” (De  Maia  1996:151).  As  such  it  is  interesting  to  observe  the  performance  of  this  on  the news  media  and  the  election  issues  that  were  covered  by  the  media  and  discussed with  spouses,  co-workers,  friends  and  neighbours.  Another  reason  to  study  elections is  that  “elections  [can]  yield  masses  of  quantitative  data  amenable  to  statistical analysis”  (Denver  2007:4).  Exactly  who  is  going  to  win  an  election  and  with  what margin  of  victory  is  a  matter  of  some  debate.  This  Paper  contributes  to  that  debate  by reflecting  on  some  of  the  long  and  short-term  factors  that  may  affect  voting  behavior of  the  2019  election  in  Mozambique. The  long-term  factors  of  voting  behavior  include  voters’  social  characteristics,  such  as: class,  religion  and  ethnicity  but  also  their  party  identification.  The  social  determinant theory  of  voting  behavior  resulted  from  Lazarsfeld  and  colleagues  (Lazarsfeld, Berelson  and  Gaudet  1944,  Berelson,  Lazarsfeld  and  McPhee  1954)  while  the  party identification 2theory  of  voting  behavior  derived  from  Campbel  et  al.  (1960).  These theories  assumed  that  voters’  social  characteristics  and  their  psychological attachment  to  a  political  party  were  determinants  affecting  their  political  preference. Click here to read.

Two renovated bridges

The Ports and Railways Company of Mozambique (CFM) has completed the renovation of two bridges on the Ressano Garcia railway line, providing greater security in the transportation of people and goods. The Ressano line is strategic for the connection between the Port of Maputo and the border district of Moamba and neighbouring South Africa. Visiting the works, carried out within the framework of the company’s Triennial Strategic Plan, CFM Board of Directors president Miguel Matabel expressed satisfaction. The completion of the two bridges will allow larger locomotives to use the line, contributing to greater cargo volumes.

The CFM is committed to recapturing much of the merchandise that is now transported by road, often contributing to accidents and excessive wear and tear on the country’s highways. Very recently the company inaugurated five new high-power locomotives and a first batch of the 300 wagons that will boost cargo transport to and from Maputo Port. The two bridges, whose refurbishment required line closures, can now support trains crossing in both directions at once, and cost just over US$4 million. In order to connect the lines to the two bridges, the company had to take advantage of the so-called “shutdown” period, where there is scheduled maintenance on the three lines of the southern part of the rail system, namely Limpopo, Goba and Ressano Garcia.