In Tete, an inland province with rich coal deposits, thousands of people who lived near mines say they were moved by U.K.-based Rio Tinto PLC and Brazil’s Vale SA to a place ill-suited for agriculture and too far from water. At the end of July, Rio Tinto announced plans to exit the troubled mine altogether and agreed to sell the coal mine to India’s International Coal Ventures Pvt. A spokesman for Rio Tinto says the company was working with the resettled communities and providing training to help with local crop development. Anadarko is working on a plan to compensate them, including building new homes and clearing land for farming. Over the next few decades, it envisions building as many as 14 refrigerated plants here, says Mr. MacLiver, the Anadarko executive. Don MacLiver, the executive in charge of the Mozambique project’s development. The government, he says, wants some of the gas to stay in the country to spur industrial development.

On the upside, the region’s proven natural gas reserves are enormous and growing. The surplus natural gas is then further processed to Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and butane. Most of the gas lies off the coast of Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony whose population of 25 million is among the world’s most impoverished. Companies including the U.K.’s BG Group and Norway’s Statoil ASA are planning another such venture to capitalize on gas they’ve struck off the coast of Tanzania, Mozambique’s neighbor to the north. Italy’s Eni SpA, for instance, is planning one adjacent to Anadarko’s. Anadarko’s bet on Mozambique is particularly bold. Al Walker, Anadarko’s chief executive, said of the agreements in May. And it may cost tens of billions of dollars to tap the gas. To arrange for the adequate work force, oil companies depend on oil melting of permafrost. The field initially begins with locating mines and determining the site and excavating technique for optimum recovery. Protesters have demonstrated frequently outside the mines and blocked railways to disrupt coal shipments.

As we’ve — from the outside looking in, there have been — I would say, there is some conflicting data coming from various operators in the TMS. And then there is the question about what will happen if the project comes to a halt and the workers and companies leave. If the offer isn’t accepted, you will need to go back to your company and see if they want to up the terms of their offer. The LNG projects in east Africa won’t have the foreign-exchange risks of plants in Australia, where costs have ballooned, and some analysts don’t expect to see similar cost blowouts. Chris Holmes, senior director of IHS, referring to liquefied-gas export projects. The prospective LNG export business has support from both governments, which envision a lucrative new industry to buoy their economies and living standards. Since 2000, the cost of building LNG projects has more than tripled, according to consulting firm Merlin Advisors LLC.

Still, making LNG is so expensive that Anadarko and its partners won’t commit to it without some guarantee they can turn a profit. With customers so far away, Anadarko plans to build giant freezer-like devices to chill the gas to the temperature of the ice-encrusted moon that orbits Jupiter. And while the influx of workers has been good for fish prices, Ali Mequit, a 30-year-old fisherman, says he worries that gas drilling is pushing fish farther out to sea. After the company left, other players continued to invest in the area, drilling another nine dry holes in the Grand Banks. The decision leaves in tact stricter environmental standards for drilling operations and the county-adopted drilling impact fee. DESIGNATION: HEAD OF VISA/PERMITS OPERATIONS. Abdul Razak Noormahomed, Mozambique’s deputy minister of mineral resources. In fact, the biggest problem in royalty buying is locating mineral owners who wish to sell their royalties to you. Such a scale could rival the world’s biggest hub for exporting liquefied gas in Qatar.