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 MOZAMBIQUE
East Africa
Several onshore dry gas accumulations have been discovered in the
central part of Mozambique within sediments of the Zambesi delta,
probably generated from coals, although only two have so far been
declared commercial.
The Temane field was discovered by Gulf/Amoco in 1956 about
750 kms north of the capital Maputo in the
southern province of Inhambane. Around 45 kms to the northwest, the Pande field was
discovered in 1961 and together these fields hold significant
quantities of gas.
After the civil war that ran from 1973 (when the
Portuguese left) to 1993 the national oil company (Empresa Nacional de
Hydrocarbonetos de Mocambique, ENH) encouraged further investment and
Pande came onstream in 1998 delivering tiny volumes of gas to local
villages.
 Temane
was also appraised in that year and in early 2000, Sasol, which leads the coal to liquids
synfuel industry in South Africa, began a project to replace coal using gas
from Mozambique as a feedstock.
In February 2004 Temane began delivering from 18 wells through an 865
km pipeline to Sasol plants in Secunda, South Africa. Pande is due to
begin delivering gas south in 2007.
Other gas fields are also
probably present in the fan deposits of the Limpopo River off southern
Mozambique (Maputo Basin) and may be present in the northerly Rovouma
Basin, however there seems to be no oil potential due to a lack of
source rocks in the younger post-rift sediments and the great depth of
burial of the older pre-rift sediments.
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