International energy companies say they have discovered potentially massive natural gas fields off the coast of Mozambique.
国际能源公司表示，在莫桑比克沿海发现了潜在的大规模天然气田。
The Italian energy firm ENI last month announced two major finds in the Mamba South gas fields off Mozambique's northeastern coast. The company said the field, located 45 kilometers off Cabo Delgado province, could yield more than 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
意大利能源公司埃尼上个月宣布说，在莫桑比克东北部沿海南梦巴发现了两座巨型天然气田。埃尼公司说，这个气田有可能蕴藏着22万亿立方英尺的天然气。
The announcement follows that of the American oil company Anadarko, which said its gas fields in the same area could yield up to 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. And, Britain's Cove Energy PLC estimates it exploration field in the same area could eventually yield 40 trillion cubic feet of gas.
在意大利埃尼能源公司公布这一消息之前，美国阿纳达科(Anadarko)石油公司已经宣布说，他们在同一地区拥有的天然气田有可能出产多达10 万亿立方英尺的天然气。与此同时，英国一家能源公司预计他们在这一地区有可能开采出40万亿立方英尺的天然气。
Gas flows are expected to come on line between 2014 and 2016.
预计，这一地区的天然气管道将在2014到2016年间正式开通。
"It is big," noted Tony Twine is director and senior economist at Econometrix, South Africa's largest independent macro-economic consultant firm. "It would provide about $150 billion at 2010 gas prices, it really is a significant find. Incidentally, $150 billion is equivalent to ten full years of Mozambique gross domestic product. So relative to their other sources of income, this is massive."
提怀恩说：“规模真的很大。用2010年的价格来算的话，这些天然气价值一千五百亿美元，相当可观。很巧的是，一千五百亿美元正好等于是莫桑比克目前整整十年的国内经济总产值。所以说，和该国的其他收入来源比起来，这一收入可以说是庞大的。”
Twine says the fields are huge by any standards and promise an enormous financial windfall for the country.
Mozambique is one of the world's poorest countries, having emerged from a 15-year civil war in 1992 with its infrastructure devastated and its economy shattered. The country has made many gains since then and continues to be one of the continent's fastest growing economies. Even so, economists note this growth comes off a very small base, and that most Mozambicans still live on less than $1.25 a day.
就目前来讲，莫桑比克是世界上最贫穷的国家之一，1992年的时候刚刚结束了长达15年的内战，基础设施在内战中受到了严重的破坏，整个经济受到的打击也相当严重。自从内战结束以来，莫桑比克在很多方面都有了长足的进步，近些年来一直是非洲大陆经济增长最快的国家之一。即便如此，经济学家指出，莫桑比克在经济发展上，可以说是底子薄，大多数莫桑比克人每天的收入不到1.25美元。
Arsenio Mabote, the chief executive officer of Mozambique's National Petroleum Institute (INP) says the financial benefits from the gas must be used to develop the country's economy and its citizens.
阿尔赛尼奥·马波特是莫桑比克国家石油研究所的总裁。他在接受美国之音采访的时候说，天然气资源带来的财富一定要用于发展莫桑比克的经济、有利于莫桑比克民众。
"As I told you employment is very important to us, improvement of different infrastructure is very important for us, build up capacity," Mabote said. "Training of Mozambican employees is part of the package that we would like to see so that by exploiting natural resources like natural gas, will benefit the country."
马波特说：“就业问题对于我们来说，非常重要，改善各种基础设施对于我们来说非常重要，发展各方面的潜能，也非常重要。我们希望看到，在气田开发过程中，莫桑比克雇员能够受到培训，以便在开发天然气等自然资源时，莫桑比克作为国家，能够有收益。”
And, Mabote sees benefits too for Cabo Delgado province where there have been almost no infrastructure improvements since the end of the civil war, two decades ago.
与此同时，在马波特看来，天然气的开发，势必将给德尔加杜角省带来好处。他说，那一地区自从内战20年前结束以来，各项基础设施几乎没有任何改善。
"It will enable us also to improve our basic infrastructure," Mabote added. "As a matter of fact, if you look at Pemba where the gas discoveries are being made, you have no adequate infrastructure there, by implementing these kind of projects will definitely increase the infrastructure situation, improve the infrastructure situation."
马波特说：“天然气的开发将让我们有能力改善基础设施。现实情况是，在天然气资源被发现的奔巴地区，目前各种设施远远不够。在气田的开发过程中，当地设施的总体状况肯定会得到改善。”
Mobote says the country will also be looking to added-value projects to ensure even greater income and build capacity in Mozambique.
马波特说，莫桑比克还将考虑在原材料基础上，增加附加值的项目，以便有更多的收入，同时也发挥潜能。
"Implementation of projects that add value to the gas in Mozambique - such as liquefied natural gas, ammonia projects, fertilizers, methanol projects, power generation projects - those projects will have a lot of importance because they will possible build up capacity in the country, train a lot of technicians as well and high-level technical people to work for those projects," Mobote explained.
马波特说：“那些能够在天然气资源的基础上增加附加值的项目，比如说液态天然气、氨气项目、化肥、甲醇和电力项目，等等，都很重要，因为这些项目的开发将带动整个国家的经济发展，让一大批技工人员以及高科技人员在参与这些项目的过程中，得到培训。”
Economist Twine says that these are the dream projects that promise unbelievably high macro-economic gains. But he says, even without the dream projects, Mozambique stands to gain well beyond the simple cash flow generate by exploiting the gas fields from royalties, mining rights, taxes on profits and personal incomes generated both upstream and downstream from the actual gas extraction.
经济学家提怀恩说，对莫桑比克来说，马波特所说的那些附加值项目如果能实现的话，可以说是再好不过的，因为这些项目能给当地经济带来非常多的好处。不过，他说，即便那些附加值项目不能实现，有这些天然气田，莫桑比克也还会从开采权、利润税收、个人所得税等方面获得财富。
"So the eventual Mozambican fiscal take, at a rough guess would probably be around about 30 percent of the total value added, which I guess would be in the region of $100 billion for the life of the project," Twine noted. "So about $35 billion, which is 3 1/2 years' worth of Mozambican GDP, just popping up as direct revenue to the Mozambican government."
提怀恩说：“大概算一下，莫桑比克最后的所得，将相当于全部附加产值的30%，我估计全部附加产值将在一千亿美元左右。这就是说，大约350亿美元的资产，也就是相当于莫桑比克三年半的国内生产总值，几乎是不费吹灰之力，就到了莫桑比克政府的帐上。”
Twine says the benefits of such large gas fields will also flow to other countries in the region, such as Zimbabwe, Malawi and especially for South Africa, Mozambique's largest trading partner.
提怀恩同时指出，在莫桑比克发现这么大的天然气田，其好处不仅仅局限于莫桑比克本国。津巴布韦、马拉维、尤其是莫桑比克的最大贸易伙伴国南非等周边国家的经济也势必受益。
"And a rule of thumb applied by economists in South Africa is that for every dollar that is spent on Mozambique, wherever the dollar comes from, it doesn't matter for every dollar, 60 cents of that dollar in turn is spent on goods and services emanating from South Africa. So even for its large economy neighbor South Africa, it would be very, very big," Twine added.
提怀恩说：“根据南非经济学家的计算，不管钱来自什么地方，花到莫桑比克的每一块钱当中，其中有六毛会花到源自南非的产品和服务设施上。所以说，莫桑比克的天然气开发，对本身已经具有相当经济规模的邻国南非来说，也有很多好处。”
Large energy projects around the globe are often accompanied by corruption, where the cash flows often do not reach the national treasury. Twine notes that in Angola, between 80 and 90 percent of oil revenues go missing. But he says that in existing onshore gas projects in Mozambique the picture is very different and that revenues appear to go where they should. He says this is encouraging for the potentially massive revenue windfall anticipated in Mozambique.
国际上，大规模能源项目的开发，往往都伴随着腐败，财富也不总是能落到国库里。南非的经济学家提怀恩说，在非洲产油国家安哥拉，石油财富当中，有80%到90%都不知去向。但是他说，在莫桑比克现有的陆上天然气项目开发过程中，情况和安哥拉很不同，开发过程中的资源似乎都到了应该去的地方。这位经济学家说，对于莫桑比克未来可能到手的大笔天然气财富来说，这应该说是好消息。 |