Total and its associates have launched a search for a floating storage and regasification unit to be based in Mozambique, in addition to the liquefaction project it is spearheading there.
Those following the business said Beluluane Gas — in which Total is a stakeholder — has requested expressions of interest on a unit of at least 160,000 cbm capacity, to be located in the capital, Maputo.
According to local advertisements, the unit will be able to send out about 500m standard cubic feet per day of gas from its base in Matola Harbour and supply a truck-loading facility.
Other plans for break bulk, bunkering and rail distribution would appear to be part of the wider project.
Interested bidders would provide operation and maintenance services for the FSRU.
Shipping players familiar with the region said the port area at Maputo is quite congested and the approach estuary is shallow and prone to silting up.
Initial responses from interested companies were due in early February.
Low profile
Beluluane Gas is an affiliate of Matola Gas, which has won the government concession to import LNG in Maputo and operate a permanently moored FSRU, marine infrastructure and a new high-pressure gas pipeline.
The pipeline will feed a gas-fired power plant to be constructed in nearby Beluluane Industrial Park and connect up to the local grid.
Total — the lead shareholder in the 12.88-million tonne per annum Mozambique LNG production project in the north of the country — is said to be keeping the project low profile.
Companies close to Mozambique LNG said the developer is under some obligation to provide LNG for domestic consumption to locations along the coast. They said a pipeline would not be secure, particularly given the rise in action by local insurgents in the past two years.
Instead, when Total bought out Anadarko in 2019 and took over the lead of Mozambique LNG, the suggestion was that FSRUs could be deployed.
In addition, a Maputo-based FSRU could supply regasified LNG to the existing underutilised Rompco pipeline. This connects Mozambique to neighbouring gas-hungry South Africa, which is also pursuing a raft of FSRU-based LNG import projects.
