Mozambique and South African companies interested in building a gas pipeline from the Rovuma Basin in the far north of Mozambique to South Africa’s Gauteng province began discussions to unveil a project as the Renaissance pipeline that would link the two countries, APA learns here on Saturday.

According to media reports monitored by APA, the partners are the Mozambican company Profin Consulting, the Mozambican National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH), China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP), and the South African companies SACoil Holdings and SAGas and they have already signed a memorandum of understanding and now the Maputo meetings are intended to reach an agreement based on the memorandum.

The best known figure in Profin is former Defence Minister Alberto Chipande, who is chairperson of the company’s general meeting. The top executives in the company are Suleman Kabir and Olivia Machel (daughter of the country’s first president, Samora Machel).

At a Maputo dinner on Wednesday, Chipande declared that the challenge of building the pipeline corresponds to the new phase in the development of Mozambique in which Mozambicans should benefit from the wealth of the country. We did not struggle in order to be poor.

For Chipande, this was a third phase in the country’s history, after the national liberation struggle and the consolidation of independence.

CPP is a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and it will take charge of the construction of the pipeline. CNPC is already involved in hydrocarbon exploration in Mozambique, and has a 20 per cent share in the Rovuma Basin Area Four, where the operator is the Italian energy company, ENI.

The total cost of building the 2,600 kilometre pipeline is pegged at $6 billion while the shareholding structure of the project is broken down as 56 per cent will be in the hands of the Mozambican partners Profin and ENH, 20 per cent will be held by CPP and 24 per cent by the South African investors.

The project will be financed without any funds or guarantees from the Mozambican government.

Source: APA