The politics of domestic gas: The Sasol natural gas deals in Mozambique

Doing business while holding public office: Evidence from Mozambique’s firm registry

“…The hypothesis that politicians and senior members of the ruling party have used their influence to accumulate wealth in the private sector through their own business interests is not new. This theme emerged as a critique of the process of privatization (Pitcher, 2002) and has gained renewed force with the boom in natural resource investments over the past decade (Macuane et al, 2018;Salimo et al, 2020). Nonetheless, the evidence has been patchy and largely qualitative in nature, reflecting data limitations.…”

“…Nonetheless they have presented opportunities for abuse, which have been seized in some instances. Salimo et al (2020) provide a detailed case study of how political insiders, as well as the investment arm of the Frelimo party, were able to benefit from the domestic allocation of natural gas from Sasol, often via partnerships with other foreign investors. The Indian Ocean Newsletter (29 June 2007) characterised these political-business connections as follows: "The business networks and the ruling Frelimo party have been closely interweaved for decades, leading to a risk of insider trading at all levels of power in Mozambique.…”

Mozambique: Country Profile

“…This company is the country's first megaproject based on foreign investment, paving the way for others to finance mining and other sectors. Sasol extracts and exports natural gas from Pande and Temane districts to South Africa [98], the Brazilian company Vale do Rio Doce explored mineral coal for some time [99], and other megaprojects intend to explore liquid natural gas in the Palma district, Cabo Delgado province [1,100,101]. Daly [102] predicts that Mozambique's economy will increasingly rely on exploring Cabo Delgado's gas and Salvucci and Tarp [82] add that if the country establishes its total capacity to explore the liquid gas and coal reserves found in the early 2010s, the country's wealth will increase exponentially.…”

Formalizing artisanal and small-scale mining in Mozambique: Concerns, priorities and challenges

“…The company's arrival has transformed Mozambique into a world-class coal producer: in 2017, output was in the range of 11,300,000 tonnes (BGS, 2019). Finally, and perhaps most significantly, there is the more than 180 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in the offshore Rovuma Basin since 2010 (Salimo et al, 2020).…”