Mozambique has closed bidding for 16 offshore oil and gas exploration blocks — attracting bids on just six blocks, from a total of just two companies, Italy’s Eni and Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC

Oil companies that have previously expressed interest in the new round include TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Eni, Sasol, Shell, BP and China’s CNOOC

Minister Max Tonela said the government must first improve regulations to allow “a better optimization or maximization of these resources for Mozambique” before launching the next oil and gas block round

Nine state-owned export credit agencies from around the world have been assembled to lend or insure billions of dollars for the Anadarko-led Mozambique LNG project

Anadarko is promising more SPAs in the near future, and targeting FID in the first half of this year