Maputo — The exploitation of natural gas exported to South Africa from the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane has yielded 60 million US dollars since the first commercial delivery of gas on 26 March 2004, reports Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily paper "Noticias".

This figure was disclosed in Maputo on Wednesday by the chairman of the National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH), Issufo Abdala, during the inauguration of the company's new headquarters, in a ceremony attended by outgoing Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano.

Abdala said ENH hopes that in 2005 income from the sale of gas will amount to about 120 million US dollars, counting on the planned doubling of production from the Temane and Pande gas fields.

So far, the Inhambane gas has been sold in the South African market, transported through a pipeline from Inhambane to the Secunda petrochemical complex, but is also planned to distribute gas to some Mozambican industries, including the Mozal aluminium smelter, in and around the southern city of Matola.

More than ten multinational companies have lately expressed interest in prospecting for oil and natural gas, and exploiting the known coal deposits in Mozambique.

Arsenio Mabote, of the National Oil Institute, and Estevao Pale, the National Director of Mines, told Chissano, during his visit, that the great interest of multinationals in Mozambican energy resources is justified by last year's sharp rises in the price of oil on the world market.

Speaking of the Rovuma block, on the border with Tanzania, where there are high hopes of finding oil, Mabote said that his institution is planning to divide it into three, and launch an international tender to select the most suitable among the interested companies to undertake oil prospection.