Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 9 May 2026 Mozambique's Assembleia da República approved, by consensus of all four parliamentary caucuses under an urgency procedure submitted by President Daniel Chapo, a standalone Lei de Conteúdo Local establishing the legislative-level local-content framework for the country's petroleum and natural gas megaprojects. The law was promulgated on 5 June 2026. It defines goods and services as qualifying local content when they meet at least one of three thresholds: ≥80% national production factors, ≥40% Mozambican company ownership, or a predominantly Mozambican payroll. It mandates integration of national labour, preference for Mozambican subcontractors and goods-and-services suppliers, and creates a dedicated Local Content Agency (Agência de Conteúdo Local) to oversee compliance and enforce penalties. Primary application: TotalEnergies Area 1 (Mozambique LNG) and ExxonMobil/Eni Area 4 (Rovuma LNG / Coral South).

Mozambique's National Mining Institute (INAMI) presented a draft revision of the country's mining law for public consultation, with parliamentary debate scheduled for 7 May 2026. The bill mandates that the state hold a minimum 15% equity stake in all mining projects (raisable on a project-by-project basis), reserves "strategic minerals" exclusively for the state mining company Empresa Nacional de Minas (ENM), prohibits the export of unprocessed minerals (forcing in-country processing), caps concessions at 25 years, and channels 10% of mining revenues to a local development fund for the province, district, and community where operations occur. Implementation is not expected before 2027 to allow development of secondary regulations and ENM institutional build-out. This is the flagship economic-policy instrument of President Daniel Chapo's January 2025 mining and oil/gas restructuring agenda.

Mozambique's Council of Ministers, at its 6th Ordinary Session on 3 March 2026, approved resolutions establishing two Interministerial Coordination Committees — one for the Development Plan of Area 1 of the Rovuma Block (the TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG project, formerly Anadarko) and one for Area 4 of the Rovuma Block (the ExxonMobil/Eni-led Rovuma LNG / Coral South / Coral Norte projects). Both committees are chaired by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and include the ministers of finance, economy, transport and logistics, labour, and land and environment, plus INP, the Tax Authority, and the Bank of Mozambique as technical participants. The mandate is to monitor and ensure the rapid, coordinated government assessment of amendments to the development plans for these projects, which together represent approximately USD 50bn+ in committed capital in Cabo Delgado province and are the primary drivers of Mozambique's projected fiscal revenue stream through 2060+.

Mozambique's Council of Ministers, at its 39th Ordinary Session on 18 November 2025, approved the terms and conditions of a concession contract granting a state-company consortium the exclusive right to finance, construct, import, and operate (i) a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) LNG terminal at Beira and Inhassoro (Inhambane province), and (ii) the 865-km ROMPCO gas pipeline connecting Mozambican gas fields to South Africa via Komatipoort — both for a 30-year concession term. The concessionaire is a Specific Object Entity (Entidade de Objecto Específico, EOE) constituted by four state enterprises — the National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH, E.P.), Mozambique Ports & Railways (CFM), Mozambique Electricity (EDM), and Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric (HCB) — plus government-selected technical and financial partners. The decree marks the first midstream LNG infrastructure-rights award in Mozambique and represents a foundational shift toward state-led control of the country's regasification and cross-border pipeline architecture rather than concession to international IOCs.

Mozambique's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME) published a comprehensive revision of the 2014 Petroleum Law (Lei n.º 21/2014) in June 2025, tabled before the Assembleia da República for debate on 7 May 2026. The revision mandates a minimum 25% domestic-market quota for all oil, gas, and LNG produced under concessions (exclusively for national consumption), requires 100% of condensate output to be allocated domestically, and introduces idle-block penalty charges for concessionaires that fail to develop assigned blocks within prescribed periods. It also elevates the Instituto Nacional de Petróleo (INP) to full Regulatory Authority status with inspection and sanctioning powers, and establishes a mandatory minimum state Participating Interest with a free-carry obligation through to commercial production.

On 5 July 2024 Mozambique's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME) issued Diploma Ministerial nº 55/2024, the first regulation to operationalise the local-content obligations of petroleum-sector concessionaires that were set in skeleton form by Lei nº 21/2014 (Petroleum Law) and Decreto nº 34/2015 (Regulamento das Operações Petrolíferas). The diploma binds concessionaires across four pillars: Employment Programmes, Training/Education Programmes, Association with Mozambican Persons, and Right of Preference in the Contracting of Goods and Services. Quarterly Employment, Education and Hiring Reports must be filed with the Instituto Nacional do Petróleo (INP). Published in Boletim da República I Série Nº 130 and effective the day of publication.