Mozambique unveils discovery of natural gas reserve in north

The government of Mozambique announced on Thursday that explorations in the Ruvuma River Basin increased the country's known natural gas reserves to over 200 trillion cubic feet.
The minister of mineral resources Esperanza Bias told media that prior to these discoveries in the north, the known gas was located in the southern province of Inhambane.
Operators of the two northern concessions, the U.S. Texas based Anadarko and Italy's ENI, are now developing plans to build Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plants which will cool the gas until it becomes a liquid prior to shipping to the world's energy markets.
Estimations showed that the gas reserve is enough for the two companies to jointly build at least ten production units, each capable of making 5 million tons of LNG per year.
In addition, ENI is designing a floating production unit (FLNG) to produce further 2 million tons per year.
Once operational, the project will make the country one of the world's largest exporters of LNG, alongside Qatar and Australia.
Experts attending an oil and gas conference in the United Arab Emirates this week have argued that natural gas is no longer the poor sister of the hydrocarbon family.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, the President of Strategies at Politiques Energetiques, Francis Perrin, told the Mozambique media that over the last 20 years natural gas has gained several advantages over oil.
In particular, he said, it is the cleanest fossil fuel and is increasingly in demand as the world's economy grows. Perrin was quoted by the Mozambique News Agency as saying Mozambique is developing these plans at a difficult time due to a well-supplied market with many other projects about to come on stream over the next few years.
He warned that several very large gas deposits will soon be commercialized, including those in Tanzania, Angola, Cyprus, Israel, Qatar and Australia.
In addition, shale and tight gas will become major sources in the U.S. and elsewhere in coming years.
However, he argued that Mozambique has huge deposits of high quality gas which enables investors to take a very long term view.
The key region for LNG imports is Asia, and Perrin pointed out that Mozambique is in a great geographical position to supply these markets with uninterrupted marine routes.
In addition, the regasification plant is to be located on the country's eastern coastline, which will avoid the need for tankers to travel through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.