A resource-rich, emerging country in Africa
Located in southeast Africa, the Republic of Mozambique is roughly 2.1 times the size of Japan at 799,000 square kilometers, with a population of approximately 22 million people. The country is a former Portuguese colony, and Portuguese is the official language. After becoming independent in 1975, Mozambique experienced 17 years of civil war that ended with the signing of the General Peace Agreement in 1992. Since then, regular presidential and legislative elections have been held, and with political stability as well as investment from other countries, in recent years the country has been growing in the level of 7% annually.
With abundant resources and fertile land, the main industries of Mozambique are agriculture, including corn and sugar cane; shrimp and other marine products industry; and mining and manufacturing industry, including aluminum and coal. While the recent discovery of large-scale natural gas resources is attracting attention, the poverty rate remains high, and the elimination of poverty through economic growth still is the important issue.

Pursuing LNG development after the discovery of one of the world's largest natural gas resources
Mitsui's history in Mozambique dates to 1986, when it opened an office in Maputo, the capital, and commenced operation. After the temporary closing in 2002, the office was reopened in March 2011.
Mitsui has been working together with the U.S. oil and gas exploration and production company Anadarko Petroleum Corporation ("Anadarko") and other partners in an oil and natural gas exploration business in Mozambique. Test drilling to date has led to the discovery of abundant natural gas resources in what is expected to become one of the world's largest natural gas fields, and we have begun to study the commercial production of liquefied natural gas (LNG). This large project which could potentially contribute to the stable supply of energy to Japan and Asia as a major LNG supply center has significant importance for Mozambique as well.

Contributing to Mozambique's economic growth by leveraging Mitsui's comprehensive strength
In addition to our oil and natural gas development business, Mitsui exports titanium ore from Mozambique and is engaged in social contribution activities, including a project to increase agricultural productivity by the construction of a solar-powered irrigations facility. In our Medium-term Management Plan to March 2014, we have designated Mozambique as one of the focus countries.
Mitsui is continuing to move its resource development projects forward, constantly bearing in mind the importance of achieving sustainable growth both for the host countries and the resource development projects. In Mozambique, starting with the natural gas development project, we hope to demonstrate our comprehensive strength in areas that can contribute to the country's further economic growth, including power generation and other infrastructure, agriculture and gas chemicals.

Mitsui is pursuing a number of LNG projects around the world. To further build on these initiatives, Mitsui is participating in a variety of projects from the exploration stage, and as a result, discovered one of the world's largest gas resources off the coast of Mozambique. Mitsui is working with Anadarko and other partners toward the early development of this new large-scale LNG project.

Global demand for energy is expected to grow over the medium to long term, and securing energy is a major issue for the entire world. Through its oil and natural gas resource development business, Mitsui is working on existing projects as well as aggressively pursuing development and exploration in new regions to increase reserves and production volumes, with emphasis on balance in terms of regions, commodities, stages of development and partners. In particular, with higher prices for crude oil and intensified competition in the acquisition of energy resources in recent years, we have been proactively participating in projects from the exploration stage to diversify the stage of the project we are involved in, with a good balance between exploration, development and production, which would disperse business risks.

In 2008, Mitsui acquired a 20% interest in the Mozambique Offshore Area 1 exploration block from Anadarko, the project's operator. To reduce the exploration risk related to our participation in this project, Mitsui utilized a government program and received 75% funding from the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC").
Since 2010, nine deep-water exploration wells have been drilled, with seven of these confirming the existence of gas. The estimated recoverable resources within the block are over 32 to 65 trillion cubic feet as of the end of October 2012, making this one of the largest gas finds in the world. (One trillion cubic feet is equivalent to one million tons of LNG annually for roughly 20 years.) Exploration work is still being conducted at the block, which is expected to contain enormous additional reserves of oil and gas.
As to the commercialization of this gas, the plan is to produce 10 million tons of LNG per annum in the first stage. This is equivalent to more than 10% of Japan's annual LNG import volume and could operate 10 LNG-fired power plants with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts each for one year. The preliminary basic design for production is already complete, and will be followed with the full-scale engineering and design aiming at the final investment decision by the end of 2013 and commencement of LNG production in 2018. Marketing activities of the LNG have begun in Japan, Asia and other regions, and Mitsui views this project as a means of contributing to the securing of a stable supply of energy for Japan. We estimate that annual production could be increased gradually to 50 million tons, depending on the trend in gas demand going forward.

As part of our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals set as a United Nations initiative to eliminate poverty in the developing world, Mitsui is working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to build a solar-powered irrigation facility for a farming community in Chibuto in the province of Gaza, Mozambique. By securing water for irrigation, this program is working to increase agricultural productivity and enable crop diversification, with the aim of improving the local economic environment and achieving sustainable development for the local community.

Our presence in Africa dates to 1929, when we stationed a representative in Cape Town, South Africa, for the purchase of wool. During the 1990s, we had more than 20 offices in Africa, but after reviewing the business and the organization, the network was scaled back to four offices in 2008.
Subsequently, backed by the globally higher prices for mineral resources and energy, Africa has become a focus of attention as a front line in resource development. The Japanese government has strengthened its programs for securing resources in Africa and continues to offer proactive support. Given this changing business environment, we have reviewed our strategy for Africa, and based on a policy of "Contributing to sustainable growth of Africa through resource development, infrastructure development, and industrial and agricultural development," we have opened four offices since 2011: the Representative Office of Mitsui & Co. Europe Plc. in Maputo (Mozambique), the Liaison Office of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. in Casablanca (Morocco), the Representative Office of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. in Accra (Ghana), and the Mitsui & Co. Europe Plc., Nairobi Branch (Kenya). Through a variety of initiatives utilizing our comprehensive strength, we aim to contribute to the development of each of these countries.

The posted information is as of the date of issuance. The information may change without notification.

distributed by