Page 16 - AfrOil Week 42

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

This trend predates the OPEC+ deal, the terms in 2014, saying it wanted to promote the devel-
of which Gabon has often transgressed. opment of the country’s reserves of associated
Earlier this week, the OPEC+ group’s Joint and natural gas.
Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) To this end, it has promoted a number of
named Iraq, Nigeria and Gabon as the OPEC projects that are in line with its goals, including
members that had the biggest obligations to the construction of a fertiliser plant at Mandji,
compensate for overproduction this year. the delivery of associated gas to thermal power
Member states have been instructed to submit plants (TPPs) in Libreville and Port-Gentil and
their plans for making compensatory cuts to the the use of associated gas to produce LPG.
OPEC Secretariat by October 26. Currently, Gabon’s gas reserves are estimated
Gabon’s government has said it intends to at 28.3bn cubic metres. This figure may rise, as
invest in the gas sector in order to compensate several international oil companies (IOCs) have
for the decline of oil production. It outlined recently discovered gas at offshore fields such as
plans to that effect in the Hydrocarbons Code Rabi-Kounga, Ozangue and Olouwi. ™

POLICY
Bank of Mozambique publishes

plan for establishing gas fund

MOZAMBIQUE MOZAMBIQUE’S central bank has publicised co-operation with the International Monetary
its plan to set up a new sovereign wealth fund Fund (IMF).
for earnings from natural gas and LNG projects. The fund will have two primary goals. First, it
In a document published last week, the Bank will seek to maximise the value of its holdings so
of Mozambique noted that the country’s gas that gas revenues can be a source of state fund-
reserves have been estimated at 277 trillion cubic ing for several generations. Second, it will make
feet (7.844 trillion cubic metres), large enough contributions to fiscal stabilisation programmes
to generate sizeable revenues that could trans- in order to lessen the country’s vulnerability to
form the country’s economy. Gas production is instability on commodity markets. “The fund
on track to begin in 2022, and the Mozambican will build savings and contribute to fiscal stabil-
government’s share of earnings from ongoing ity when commodity prices fluctuate,” the bank
and future projects may reach $96bn, it said. said.
Maputo decided in 2019 to deposit a portion In the document, the Bank of Mozambique
of its gas revenues in a sovereign wealth fund, explained that the government intended to
the document said. It chose to follow that course deposit 50% of its share of gas revenues in the
in March 2019, when Mozambican officials met fund during the first two decades after commer-
with representatives of sovereign wealth funds cial production begins, with the balance to be
from other countries in a seminar convened in reserved for the state budget.

Several offshore fields will send gas to LNG plants (Image: Anadarko)

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 42 21•October•2020