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China-Africa Trade Information Service
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The Mozambique's government has approved ExxonMobil's Rovuma liquefied natural gas (LNG). As an emerging LNG exporter, Mozambique can provide China with abundant LNG energy to meet China's demand for clean energy. This also brings unlimited opportunities to the liquefied gas industry in Mozambique.
Research published by Standard Bank in March argues that China's need to adopt cleaner energy and switch from coal to gas opens the door. Mozambique, the piece argues, has the chance to follow the mining and food industries in Australia and New Zealand, which have become long-term suppliers to China and so strengthened their economies.
According to the report, Chinese LNG import volumes surged 52% in the first half of 2018. In the period to 2022, Chinese domestic production will fail to keep pace with demand and imports will continue to rise.
Asian markets for Mozambique's LNG have started to open up. On Monday, Anadarko, which has agreed to be acquired by Occidental Petroleum, said that it had signed a deal to supply Japan's JERA, the world's biggest buyer of LNG, as well as Taiwan's CPC Corp. Anadarko and the other members of its consortium expect to take the final investment decision on their Offshore Area 1 project in June.
Standard Bank expects Mozambique to become the world's fourth- or fifth-largest LNG producer over the next 30 years, and predicts that the country will be building new LNG capacity at a faster rate than Qatar.