The European External Action Service’s Director-General for Africa, Patrícia Llombart, visited Maputo last month. She called Mozambique’s natural gas a key element of Europe’s energy diversification. Speaking to the Portuguese news agency Lusa, she said Brussels follows the LNG developments in Cabo Delgado with great interest. She also sees strong long-term potential as security conditions improve. The backdrop is this year’s disruption around the Strait of Hormuz. The International Energy Agency called it the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market. In response, the European Commission urged early storage refills, and buyers everywhere widened their supplier maps. Part of that story now unfolds in Africa, where Italy’s ENI and France’s TotalEnergies lead two flagship projects.
Asia was there first
Asian capital helped underwrite the Rovuma Basin long before Brussels turned its attention southward. Japan’s Mitsui holds one of the largest stakes in the TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG project. India’s ONGC Videsh, Bharat Petroleum and Oil India share the venture, alongside Thailand’s PTTEP. In the neighbouring Area 4, Korea’s KOGAS and China’s CNPC sit within the ENI and ExxonMobil-led consortium. The country’s exports already carry an Asian signature too. Samsung Heavy Industries built the pioneering Coral Sul platform at its Geoje shipyard in South Korea. It is the first floating LNG facility in the deep waters of the African continent.
A bigger market for everyone
Europe’s renewed interest expands the market rather than crowding it. Global gas demand keeps growing faster than any single basin can serve. Asia remains the anchor of that growth. Much of Mozambique’s future output points at buyers across Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. A European push to accelerate Cabo Delgado would bring forward volumes, de-risk timelines and strengthen returns for Asian partners. Even the disruption that sharpened Europe’s focus is resolving into opportunity. Gulf capacity is recovering, and the global map is widening rather than fragmenting. Europe is adding Mozambique to its energy map. Asia already sits on it three times over — as owner, as builder, and as the market of tomorrow.
