Eni agrees tax to Mozambique on gas field sale

Italy’s Eni has
agreed to pay $400 million tax to Mozambique,
on the $4.2 billion sale of its gas field stake to
China.

Eni’s sale of nearly 30 percent of its
Mozambican subsidiary to China National
Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) gives CNPC a
20 percent stake in its lucrative Area 4 offshore
gas field.
Eni is still the operator of Area 4 with a 50
percent stake.
Eni is one of the several foreign companies
exploring for hydrocarbons in Mozambique,
where massive quantities of natural gas have
already been discovered.
But Mozambique’s government has faced
criticism from civil society groups and the
opposition over huge tax breaks it granted to
foreign firms.
The energy company said after a meeting
between its CEO and Mozambique’s President
Armando Guebuza, it also agreed to build a
power station in the east African country.
The 75-megawatt power plant is to built in
Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province,
where it had made massive gas discoveries in
its offshore field.