Mozambique on Monday started constructing a multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas project offshore, operated by the US energy giant Anadarko on the country's remote northern coast.
President Filipe Nyusi laid the foundation stone in Palma in the Cabo Delgado province, hailing the $25-billion Rovuma basin LNG project.
"With this project, Mozambique will change, Palma will change," he told thousands of guests who witnessed the project launch in the impoverished region, just two months before national elections.
The country's gas deposits are estimated at 5,000 billion cubic metres and would make Mozambique a major exporter of liquefied natural gas.
Annual production is expected to start in 2024 with an estimated output of 12 million tonnes.
The government is predicting strong future growth for the former Portuguese colony on the back of its resource bounty.
Mozambique is hoping the discovery of the gigantic gas reserves at the beginning of the decade will bring about economic rebirth in the southeast African nation.
The project is forging ahead despite Islamist insurgent attacks that have claimed more than 250 lives and frustrated operations.
A shadowy jihadist group has targeted the Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado province since October 2017.
Convoys carrying contractors for Anadarko have been attacked at least twice, although the company has previously told AFP it does not believe it had been deliberately targeted.
Anadarko has previously said Mozambique's natural gas reserves, "are among the best and the largest in the world".
