Maputo — The Mozambican government and the publicly owned National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH) on Thursday signed two contracts under which ENH is granted concessions to distribute and market natural gas in the northern part of Inhambane province, and in Maputo city and the adjacent district of Marracuene.

The contracts were signed by Energy Minister Salvador Namburete and the chairperson of the ENH board, Nelson Ocuane.

The gas distribution network already exists in the Inhambane districts of Vilanculo, Inhassoro, and Govoru, and expansion of this network will cost an estimated 400,000 US dollars.

But establishing a piped gas network in Maputo is an entirely new investment, budgeted at 85 million dollars.

The gas is extracted and treated at Temane in Inhambane, and a pipeline owned by the South African petro-chemical giant Sasol carries the gas from Temane, across the border, for use as feedstock in the Sasol plants in Secuda. From Ressano Garcia, on the border, a branch of the pipeline goes to the Mozambican industrial city of Matola, where several factories, including the Mozal aluminium smelter are already using the gas.

Under the new contract, the pipeline will be extended 15 kilometres to the Sonefe back-up power station in Maputo. From there a network of pipes will be laid to supply the gas to industrial and domestic consumers. There will be further extensions to the outlying suburb of Costa do Sol and to Marracuene.

Ocuane stressed that the natural gas will replace imported liquid fuels. Domestic use of natural gas will also replace LPG cooking gas and wood fuels, thus reducing pressure on the remaining forests around Maputo.

Namburete stressed that the natural gas "is a valuable resource, through which we are diversifying our sources of energy. It reduces our reliance on the vicissitudes of the international market".