INDIAN MINISTER TO VISIT MAPUTO

India’s Petroleum, Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, is to pay a three day visit to Mozambique to further strengthen ties between the two countries.According to the news agency ANI, the minister will be accompanied by a trade delegation led by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).Last November, Mozambique’s Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi visited India. During the trip he signed a memorandum of understanding for joint cooperation in the oil and gas sector. Three Indian companies have a combined thirty per cent stake in Offshore Area 1 in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, where US company Anadarko is the operator. It is estimated that over 75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be recovered from this concession. In addition, huge amounts of gas have been found in Area 4 by the Italian operator ENI.The gas reserves will be cooled to produce Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which can then be shipped to markets in Asia. Analysts expect that LNG production in Mozambique could begin in 2019 and will increase rapidly over the following years.