Mozambican state oil and gas company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) has secured the US$5 million it needs to carry out the economic feasibility study of the gas pipeline linking the northern province of Cabo Delgado and southern province of Maputo, the rest of Mozambique and neighbouring countries, the Mozambican state company said in a statement issued in Maputo.

Cited by Mozambican news agency AIM, the statement, which announced the signing Tuesday of a memorandum of understanding between the state company and Gigajoule, a private company specialised in natural gas, said that if the feasibility of the pipeline, which will be 2,100 kilometres long and cost an estimated US$4 billion, is confirmed construction work may begin in mid 2015.

Following recent discoveries of natural gas in Mozambique, specifically in the blocks of the Rovuma basin operated by US company Anadarko Petroleum and Italy’s ENI, the immediate challenge has been how to use this natural resource to benefit Mozambique.

For this purpose a technical and market pre-feasibility study about potential local consumption and the needs of the country and region, including domestic gas, industrial gas and power production.

In 2003 ENH and Gigajoule became partners to set up the Matola Gas Company, a company that has headed up a number of natural gas production projects in Pande and Temane, in Inhambane province, notably the Ressano Garcia/Maputo gas pipeline and supplying gas to over 30 large customers in the Matola industrial area that use the gas as fuel. (macauhub)