Now the place is crawling with cars. There are maybe 2,000 in
circulation. Chinese-manufactured mopeds have begun to appear as well on
Pemba's increasingly asphalted streets.
Flights to the capital, Maputo, used to leave once a week. Now they
are daily. The airport has been refurbished and there are also flights
to Nairobi and Johannesburg.
Three hotels are being built on the oceanfront. An increasing
number of investors are looking to buy offices, and real estate
speculation is causing prices to soar.
"Just think, there will soon be an eight-story-high building
in Pemba!" says one of the mayor's advisers. The man is also
excited about the prospect of soon being able to do his grocery shopping
in a supermarket chain from South Africa rather than in one of the small
local shops.
Given its proximity to the extremely rich subsoil of the Rovuma
basin, near the border with Tanzania, the port city has become a key
outpost on the new gas frontier that stretches along the coast of East
Africa.
Some 5.6tn cubic metres of natural gas have already been discovered
there by Italian energy company ENI and the Anadarko Petroleum
Corporation, a US firm.
And that's not all. The government is soon expected to
allocate 75,000 square kilometres worth of new concessions. Mozambique,
one of the world's poorest countries, could thus become one of the
world's top three gas producing countries once exports begin in
2018, according to authorities in Maputo.
A study published in July by the South African bank Standard Banksuggests that between now and 2035, the natural gas industry will createsome 700,000 jobs. During the campaign for the recently heldpresidential election, Frelimo - the governing party - promised to usethe future financial windfall from royalties and corporate taxes toinvest in infrastructure, education and health care services.
In his air-conditioned office, Benedito Martins, an enthusiastic
transport official for the province of Cabo Delgado, takes his tablet
and points to the location of the current work sites on a digital map.
"Here, we are finishing the refurbishment of the road leading
to Palma, in the north, where we'll build the liquefaction factory
that will allow us to export gas. It will only take five hours to drive
there, instead of seven now," he says. "And there, a new
airport will be built to receive bigger cargo."
On the outskirts of town, the first stone of a future port
logistics platform was laid in August during a ceremony attended by
President Armando Guebuza. A large sign with a diagram indicates the
size of the Pemba 2 project to the few fishermen readying their nets
before heading out to sail the turquoise waters.
"By 2016, 300 metres of wharves will be built. Within 30
years, there will be 5.5 kilometres," says Jose Daude as he flips
through his thick presentation leaflet. The man in charge of the project
for the state-owned company Portos de Cabo Delgado says that this new
terminal will enable gas extraction companies to receive the supplies
they need.
Near the centre of Pemba, a floating dock that adapts its height
depending on the tide is already harboring the imposing ships of
Anadarko and ENI. It was custom built by a French firm called Bollore
Africa Logistics.
"We would have liked to get the contract for Pemba 2. We
understood we wouldn't, however, when the director of Portos de
Cabo Delgado told us he would study our offer but that there would be no
open call for bid," says a senior figure at Bollore.
The coveted contract instead went to an Italian-Nigerian company
called Orlean Invest, now the privileged partner of Mozambique's
state-owned ENH Logistics. "We chose the best technical and
financial offer. The accusations of corruption are groundless,"
says the region's governor, Abdul Razak Noormohamed, in response to
criticism that the government failed to be transparent in its awarding
of the estimated $150mn contract.
Companies with close ties to Frelimo may also soon take part in the
project. "Unfortunately, this is classic," says Adriano
Nuvunga, director of the Centre for Public Integrity in Maputo.
"Senior politicians in the party decide, in the
government's name and with public funds, to buy shares in a
project. Later they acquire the shares for themselves at a knockdown
price."
For the gas companies, the biggest concern is that the port's
construction is not delayed. If the start date for extraction gets
pushed back, the potential buyers of Mozambican gas could turn to other
countries.
The much-heralded gas boom, in other words, could still go bust. A
few years ago, the discovery of vast coal deposits caused a frenzy among
investors.
But in July, the British-Australian giant Rio Tinto announced it
was selling its mines because of a fall in prices and the lack of
transportation infrastructure to move the coal to the ports for export.-
Worldcrunch /Le Monde
Gulf Times Newspaper 2014 Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Syndigate.info ).
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/How+a+natural+gas+boom+is+changing+an+African+country.-a0388360773
