Turkey’s Karpowership plans to set up $1bn of LNG-to-power infrastructure in Mozambique and make this available to the entire South African Power Pool (SAPP).

The company said this would feature one of its largest powerships with a capacity of up to 500MW and a floating storage and regasification unit, without giving details of the vessels concerned.

Karpowership works in a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines as Karmol to supply FSRUs to projects.

Together they have converted three LNG carriers into regasification units, deploying two of them and acquiring a further four vessels to convert.

The companies have been targeting South Africa and have previously announced plans to put powerships and FSRUs into three locations — Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay and Coega Bay.

Karpowership described the Mozambique project as “ground-breaking”.

It said it would not only enhance the country’s domestic energy landscape but also that of the wider SAPP by providing reliable, low-cost electricity to 5m people.

The company highlighted that it has an existing partnership with Mozambique, where it began operations in 2016, to provide land-locked Zambia with 115 MW of electricity.

Currently, it supplies electricity through its powership operating in Nacala Bay.

The company recently showcased one of its state-of-the-art powerships — identical to the one planned for this new venture — at the Port of Maputo.

It said this new project will provide a reliable energy source to local utility Electricidade de Mocambique, or for export to public and private entities in neighbouring countries within the SAPP region, including Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and others.