African Development Bank said it has approved a long-term loan of $400 million to support the building of an integrated Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, including a liquefaction facility in Mozambique.
The Mozambique LNG Area 1 project led by the French major Total, includes Mitsui, Oil India, ONGC Videsh, Bharat Petroleum, PTT Exploration, as well as Mozambique’s national oil and gas company ENH.
By its approval, the African Development Bank joins a global syndicate of commercial banks, development finance institutions, and export credit agencies, to jointly provide the requisite senior debt financing for the project.
Financial close is expected within the first half of 2020, the statement reads.
In June this year, the group of investors reached final investment decision on the project, which carries a price tag in excess of $20 billion, thereby facilitating the initial commercialization of one of the world’s most important gas discoveries in the past two decades.
The LNG liquefaction plant will have a production capacity of 12.88 mtpa. The Project is the first of several LNG trains expected to undergo development in the northern part of the country.
The project has already signed eight long-term off-take contracts with LNG players, including Bharat, Centrica, China offshore state-owned oil & gas producer CNOOC, Taiwan’s CPC Corporation, Electricite de France EDF, JERA, Pertamina, Shell, Tohoku Electric, and Tokyo Gas.