Mozambique - School of International and Public Affairs - Columbia ...

Mozambique: Extractives for Prosperity, Vol. II May 2013
Holistic Resettlement Provisions must be included in the legislation
Although its impact is not likely to be as significant as for mining, private investors and government will
require access to large areas of land in order to construct LNG facilities, and to develop the
manufacturing industry that utilizes natural gas as an energy source. Inevitably, communities will be
impacted by these developments – whether through the physical location of buildings and infrastructure,
or through their environmental impacts. The draft petroleum legislation does require that some of the
proceeds from petroleum operations be dedicated to the local community, nevertheless, that
proportion has not yet been agreed on. 470
A holistic approach to resettlement and compensation is essential to ensure that communities are
adequately consulted and compensated for these impacts. Recommendations on how to improve the
current regulatory framework for resettlement are discussed in further detail in Section 6.2.1: Policy
Recommendations to Clarify, Strengthen and Modernize the Existing Mining Legislation and in Section 5:
Ensuring Social Equity in Extractive Industries-Based Development.
Recommendation 64: Amend the existing Petroleum Law and the 2012 Resettlement Decree to provide
greater protection of land occupancy rights of local communities who are forced to resettle due to gas
and petroleum operations. Amendments include:
- Minimizing involuntary resettlement whenever possible;
- Gaining full and informed community consent by consulting with impacted communities, with
particular attention being paid to women and other marginalized groups, at all stages of the
resettlement process;
- Improving the impacted community’s standard of living through livelihoods and by ensuring
access to markets, education and healthcare facilities.
- Providing resettled communities with a share of future profits from mining operations.
Work with existing investors to renegotiate contracts in line with new regulations
Mozambique has already signed numerous concession contracts with companies to survey, explore and
produce gas and petroleum. Assuming that each of these concession contracts contains a “stabilization
clause” similar to that found in the Model EPCC, the government will not be able to change regulations
affecting those companies without paying their compliance costs. Alternatively, the government could
seek to agree with those companies that they will bring their operations into line.
Article 28 of the draft petroleum law sets out that existing contracts signed governing petroleum
operations in Mozambique will be subject to the new regulations, except where the contract and the
regulations conflict. 471 It is understandable that the government would hesitate to amend regulations in
a way that might be contrary to the contractual provisions. However, this approach leaves significant
gaps and differences in the regulatory framework for several mega-projects that are currently underway.
Among these differences will be the concessionaires’ liability for environmental damage and pollution.
The government must attempt to work with existing holders of concession contracts to identify the
conflicts between contracts and the new laws, and to agree on a plan to “bridge” those gaps.
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