Maputo, 29 Sep (AIM) – The French oil and gas company, TotalEnergies, aims to supply up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity to South Africa from its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG)-to-power project in the southern Mozambican city of Matola, according to a report from the Zitamar News Service.
The project director, Antoine Mezin, made the announcement at the Mozambique Energy and Gas Summit in Maputo on Thursday.
Discussions are under way regarding power purchase agreements but 1,000 megawatts is targeted in the “mid-term”, Mezin explained.
The company had talks with South African electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa in May and July. TotalEnergies has also held meetings with South African mining and industrial companies, a number of which have expressed interest in buying electricity from the Matola LNG project.
TotalEnergies is developing the Matola project with South African energy company Gigajoule International, with a view to making a final investment decision in 2024. The project will involve importing LNG to a regasification terminal at the Beluluane industrial park in Matola, where it will be turned back into gas by the Beluluane Gas Company and used to generate electricity at the 2,000 megawatt Beluluane power plant.
The Beluluane plant is due to be operational by 2026 and would be the largest gas-fired power plant in Mozambique. This electricity could be sold to South African state-owned electric utility Eskom and to power-intensive industrial users.
South Africa represents a promising market for Mozambican power, as the country has experienced rolling blackouts of up to sixteen hours a day in recent months due to the catastrophic state of its aged coal-fired power plants, and to Eskom’s refusal to buy more hydropower from other southern African countries, particularly Mozambique.
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