Maputo, Dec. 14, 2025 (Lusa) - Mozambique's government has handed over $109.9 million (€93.7 million) in gas exploration revenues to the Bank of Mozambique to start up the sovereign wealth fund, according to information consulted by Lusa on Sunday.
According to a source at the central bank, which has taken on the role of operational manager, the initial capital of the Mozambique Sovereign Fund (FSM) allocated by the government, through the Ministry of Finance, on 10 December was $109,972,545.75.
The central bank recalls that the FSM "is a portfolio of financial assets, managed in accordance with the principles, rules, and procedures established by law," and that its creation, approved by parliament at the end of 2023, was "motivated by the imperative need to ensure that revenues generated by oil and gas exploration drive the country's social and economic development."
"Maximising the benefits for the national economy and ensuring that they serve as a pillar of stabilisation for the State Budget, as well as a solid basis for the creation of savings and accumulation of wealth for future generations," explains the Bank of Mozambique, as the operational manager of the FSM.
The state owns the FSM and aims to accumulate savings for future generations by collecting revenues from oil and natural gas exploration and the returns on the respective investments, and to stabilise the State Budget in cases of volatility in oil revenues.
The government is responsible for the overall management of the FSM, which "is operationally managed by the Bank of Mozambique in the International Financial Market," based on the approved investment policy, and is subject to internal and external audits on a half-yearly and annual basis, respectively, it further explains.
Oil and natural gas exploration earned Mozambique $67.64 million (€58.5 million) up to September, according to data from the Ministry of Finance reported by Lusa on 13 November.
According to information on budget execution from January to September 2025, the accumulated revenue for nine months amounts to $24.68 million (€21.4 million) from Mining Production Tax and $42.96 million (€37.1 million) from the “Petroleum Profit” component, which is equivalent to the portion of oil produced that exceeds the “cost oil”, attributed to the Mozambican State.
Under the legislation that created the FSM, which will be funded with 40% of natural gas revenues, the document also refers to cumulative revenues from 2022 to 2024 of $164.99 million (€142.7 million).
Since 2022, these revenues have totalled $232.33 million (€201 million), deposited in the Transitional Oil and Gas Revenue account at the central bank.
On 15 December 2023, parliament approved the creation of the FSM, with revenues from natural gas exploration expected to reach $6 billion (€5.19 billion) annually in the 2040s.
The fund was established in April of the following year. Since then, changes in the legal framework have provided for allocating 40% of tax revenues and capital gains from gas and oil exploration to the fund, with the remaining 60% to finance the State Budget.
Mozambique has three approved mega-development projects for the exploration of gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, ranked among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado, including one by TotalEnergies, for 13 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), which is in the process of resuming after suspension due to terrorist attacks in the region, and another by ExxonMobil (18 mtpa), awaiting a final investment decision, both on the Afungi peninsula.
In addition, in ultra-deep waters in the same basin, Area 4, a consortium led by Italy's Eni, has been operating since 2022 at the Coral South floating unit and is now moving on to the second unit, Coral North, which is expected to start production in 2028.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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