JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank has committed $400 million in loans and guarantees to Mozambique’s $20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, the multilateral lender said on Thursday.
Afreximbank’s move follows a similar commitment for the same sum by The African Development Bank last month.
“The … financing will be used to partially finance … activities required to extract natural gas offshore, its transfer to onshore processing facilities and then its conversion to LNG for export … around the world,” the Afreximbank statement said.
The Mozambique LNG Area 1 Project is ranked Africa’s single largest foreign direct investment to date. It will consist of two LNG trains with a total capacity of around 13 million tons per year.
French energy major Total, the operator, has secured a $14.9 billion senior debt agreement, the biggest project financing Africa has seen.