The government welcomes the progress of the "Production Sharing" project between the Executive and Sasol. The satisfaction was expressed by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy during a visit to the South African petrochemical company's facilities in Inhambane.

"In the reserve exploration component, we see that [they have] started the drilling campaign activities. We anticipate that in the first quarter of next year, construction work will begin on natural gas processing infrastructure," Max Tonela said.

The governor revealed that the expectation is to conclude the financial closing already in November for the power generation component. With this, construction work should start in the first quarter of 2021. In November, construction work should also begin on the 560 km electric current transport infrastructure. In this same period three substations are expected to be built, in Vilankulo, Chibuto and Marracuene.

For his part, Sasol's General Director, Ovídio Rodolfo, recalled that the project has a financing of 750 million US dollars. The petrochemical company started in August a drilling and recovery campaign for 23 natural gas wells. Rodolfo revealed that it is expected to produce about 600 trillion cubic feet of domestic gas per year.

The Development Plan for the project aims to promote the growth of the natural gas value chain in the country and to increase the diversification of national production. It includes the construction of a natural gas refinery (which will produce 30 thousand tons of cooking gas per year, substituting part of the imports, as well as 40 thousand barrels of light oil), a 450 Megawatt Thermal Power Plant, and an Energy Transportation Line, from Temane to Maputo.

According to the executive, the project will enable about 6.5 thousand job opportunities. The construction phase will last about three years.