Mozambique: Eni agrees tax on gas field sale

Italy’s Eni said yesterday it had agreed, following a meeting between its chief executive and Mozambique’s president, to pay $400 million (R3.9bn) tax on the $4.2 billion sale of a gas field stake to China and build the country a power station. Analysts had estimated that the oil and gas group's tax bill on the deal could be as high as $1.35bn if Mozambique imposed capital gains tax of 32 percent – a fixed rate its parliament tried to make law in December. President Armando Guebuza has put the draft law on hold. “Eni said it had also agreed to build a 75 megawatt power plant in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, where it had made massive gas discoveries in its offshore field. – Reuters