Mitch Ingram, the group’s vice-president, said in the statement that these two agreements are a milestone on the road to a final investment decision for the project, “as it marks the completion of the key parts of the framework agreement with the Mozambican government. ”

Once these two agreements have been signed, Ingram said, “the group can start the process of re-housing the population to allow for construction of the natural gas processing unit to begin.”

The group’s vice-president said that at the same time contacts will be made to secure sales contracts for liquefied natural gas and efforts will be intensified to ensure the necessary funding for the project to go ahead.

“We must make a final investment decision as soon as the sales contracts and the necessary financing have been guaranteed,” Ingram said.

The Anadarko Petroleum group is the operator of the Rovuma Basin Area 1 Block with a 26.5% stake, with the remaining partners being Mozambican state-owned Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (15%), Mitsui E & P Mozambique Area 1 Ltd. (20%), ONGC Videsh Ltd. (16%), Bharat PetroResources Ltd. (10%), PTT Exploration & Production Plc (8.5%) and Oil India Ltd. (4.0%). (macauhub)