Executives in Africa have been paying close attention to the discovery of LNG in East Africa throughout 2016 in the light of global uncertainty.  It is remarkable how quickly East Africa, specifically Mozambique and Tanzania, have become the primary focus of attention as a source of a new global gas supply.

This is very exciting for Mozambique & Tanzania because, until this discovery, no one had identified these two countries as serious potential targets for investment.  Before now, Mozambique and Tanzania have not appeared on shortlist as potential suppliers of global gas and LNG.

With  the  prospect  of  commercialising  large  volumes  of  gas,  companies are manoeuvring  themselves to improve  their  competitive  position,  in  both  Mozambique  and Tanzania.

New companies are attempting to gain entry into the development of existing discoveries of LNG and through other gas commercialisation investments. It’s going to be interesting to observe how local Governments handle and execute their decisions and the impact on these countries.   The potential domestic opportunity is phenomenal. This change is one in which Executives in Africa and many more, hope will be taken advantage of.

Picture -(By warrenski (Flickr: [1]) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

This region will no doubt become a major supplier in the LNG business, but  before  it  gets  there,  it  has  to  tackle the  many  challenges  and  internal  politics.  Clear regulation and decision making from governments is going to be critical to the prompt development of the gas resource and LNG export projects.

The world of global LNG is ever changing.  Mozambique and Tanzania will no doubt, become major suppliers to global LNG. It will be interesting to see if these countries can organise themselves in order to contribute globally and also if they can use the discovery to have a positive and lasting impact on their respective countries.

By David Pinney, Search Consultant

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