Mozambique needs less haste, less speed

Bureaucracy, financing problems and last-minute wrangles are slowing Rovuma Basin projects

Mozambique's government infrastructure is creaking under the strain of managing one of the world's most ambitious hydrocarbons provinces. The severely understaffed oil regulator, Instituto Nacional de Petróleo (INP), has been working flat out to finalise agreements aimed at getting long-delayed offshore Rovuma Basin gas projects underway, while also negotiating the allocation of new exploration blocks and awarding downstream gas monetisation projects. Meanwhile, the energy ministry has had to adapt to a new leader, following the replacement of the highly respected Pedro Couto as energy minister by Leticia Klemens last October. Klemens was a surprising and inexperienced pick, whose profession