/ 8 March 1999

MOZ GAS DEAL BACK ON

MOZAMBIQUE is preparing to resume negotiations with the United States-based fuel corporation Enron for the commercial exploitations of natural gas fields at Pande. Mozambican Prime Minister Dr Pascoal Mocumbi announced on Friday that the new round of talks will seek to create a framework agreement to replace the heads of agreement signed in November 1995. The 1995 agreement expired last May before Enron or its South African underwriters, the South African Industrial Development Corporation, delivered on key obligations. Piped gas from Pande is however still expected to be used at steel mills in Maputo and for a massive ore processing plant in Phalaborwa in South Africa’s Northern Province.