Italian oil company ENI, which is prospecting for natural gas in Mozambique, announced Wednesday it had accepted to pay capital gains of US$400 million to the Mozambican government following the sale of a stake it owned in prospecting area 4 to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), radio station Rádio Moçambique reported.

The agreement was negotiated in Tete, central Mozambique, at a meeting Tuesday of Mozambican President, Armando Guebuza, and the chief executive of ENI, Paolo Scaroni.

The Italian company, which leads a consortium for prospecting natural gas in northern Mozambique, including Portugal’s Galp, also committed to building a 75 megawatt power station, in return for the sale of 28.75 percent of ENI East Africa to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for US$4.21 billion.

Guebuza and Scaroni also discussed the process of reconstruction, by ENI, of the road linking Pemba to Palma, an area which provides support for prospecting operations off the coast of northern Mozambique, according to Italian news agency AGI.

The new shareholder structure of Area 4 has ENI with 50 percent, CNPC with 20 percent, and Galp, KOGAS and ENH each with a 10 percent stake. (macauhub)