In 2010 and after four years of exploration, United States company Anadarko made a major gas discovery in the Rovuma Basin, in Mozambique, fuelling the dreams of economic transformation and growth for the east African nation.
However, the development of the fields was not as expected, even considering the normal long periods needed for such gas fields. In 2016, as the country faced the biggest economic crisis since the end of a civil war in 1992, a secretive $2 billion debt in loans came to light, leading to foreign donors cutting off support, and the country’s currency collapsed and it defaulted on its sovereign debt. Mozambique – and its creditors – aimed to rely on huge gas revenues that were supposed to start flowing by 2016.
This report shows uses financial models to show the gas industry in Cabo Delgado will not benefit Mozambique, and in fact, will drastically hurt its economy and hence, wellbeing of its people.
