Portugal’s African colonies were starved of investment for centuries, but now Mozambique seems to be a rising African energy producer.
Both Italian and U.S. companies recently announced the discovery of massive natural gas fields off Mozambique, which could dramatically alter the Mozambiquean economy.
U.S.-based energy giant Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC, Stock Forum) announced earlier this week that its natural gas reserves in its Mozambican reserve bloc fields could be three times larger than earlier estimated, comprising up to 30 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.
Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA two weeks ago also announced that it has discovered large amounts of gas off Mozambique and stated that it plans to invest $50 billion to develop the resources.
Eni SpA’s estimated reserves?
A mere 22.5 trillion cubic feet.
Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum stated that its Barquentine-3 appraisal well "encountered more than 662 net feet of natural gas pay, expanding the estimated recoverable resource range from 15 to more than 30 trillion cubic feet."
After announcing that Anadarko Petroleum announced that its estimated recoverable resources had effectively doubled. Anadarko Petroleum Chairman and CEO Jim Hackett said that this could be one of the most important natural gas fields discovered in the last decade worldwide, commenting, "In parallel, we've continued to advance an expandable LNG (liquefied natural gas) development that will support this world-class field. This is great news for Mozambique, as our ongoing activities will continue to spur meaningful investment in the region, generate significant revenue for the government and offer a multitude of opportunities for the people of Mozambique. The positive results of each appraisal well we have drilled and analyzed have continued to increase our estimate of recoverable resources and natural gas in place on our block, and add to our confidence that this could be one of the most important natural gas fields discovered in the last 10 years."
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