Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is considering buying electricity from a Karpowership plant to be located off Mozambique, after refusing to sign agreements to buy power from facilities that the Turkish company plans to dock off the South African coast.

The South African concessionaire is in negotiations with Electricidade de Moçambique to buy the output of a 415MW Karpowership plant, which will be mounted on a ship parked in Maputo Bay and will burn low-sulphur oil.

"Discussions with Eskom, as one of the potential offtakers, are ongoing and an offer has been submitted for their internal review," the Mozambican state-owned company said in response to questions, quoted by the Integrity portal.

"The final buyer is expected to be the export market due to the exacerbation of the energy deficit we are witnessing in some countries in the region, including South Africa."

The beleaguered company, which supplies almost all of South Africa's power, is unable to meet demand and has subjected the continent's most industrialized economy to rotating blackouts of 10 hours or more a day.

The government has said it wants to buy 1,000 MW of electricity from neighboring states, many of which are suffering outages of their own.

"Eskom will undertake a fair and transparent procurement process," Power said in response to questions, without addressing whether it wants to exploit the Karpowership facility's output.

"A purchasing strategy is being developed," he said, adding that he had received unsolicited offers.

The Maputo plant, which is in addition to a smaller facility operated by the Turkish company off the coast of Nacala in northern Mozambique, is expected to obtain environmental approval in June and begin operating in October, EDM said. Karpowership confirmed the October target.

An off-take agreement could attract opposition from environmentalists, who have delayed the company's South African plans for gas-fired power plants on ships, raising objections about the potential impact on marine life.

Karpowership in 2021 won a tender to supply 1,220 megawatts of power to South Africa. In addition to environmental objections, a lawsuit and Eskom's demand for compensation against any adverse outcomes of corruption allegations have stalled the deal.

Karpowership described Eskom's demand as irregular and denied any wrongdoing.