Andarko and Partners; the companies involved in developing the natural gas field in the Rovuma Basin Offshore Area 1, off the coast of northern Mozambique, are planning to invest 24 billion US dollars to enable them to extract the gas and convert it into LNG (liquefied natural gas).

A senior official from the consortium developing the resource told the Press Trust of India (PTI) that “the Mozambique government has passed a decree law, paving the way for the start of construction work on the project. An estimated 23 to 24 billion dollars will be required to bring the first set of discoveries in Rovuma Area 1 into production and convert that gas into LNG”.

He added that the partners have so far committed 16 billion dollars and hope to achieve financial closure of the remaining sum by December or early January.

According to the report, the consortium plans to begin producing LNG from the first quarter of 2020. Initially 12 million tonnes per year will be produced using two LNG plants (known as “trains”). This will eventually be expanded to 20 million tonnes per year.

The operator in Area 1, the US based company Anadarko, last week revealed that it has secured almost all the agreements from potential buyers it needs to build the LNG factory.