South Africa’s Standard Bank Group Ltd encouraged Brazilian engineering and construction firms recently to explore African opportunities, such as the world’s largest liquid natural gas projects in Mozambique.
While incoming President-elect Jair Bolsonaro says he will focus on relations with advanced economies, Standard Bank is betting on Brazilian companies needing to diversify abroad to recover from a recession at home.
South Africa’s largest lender by assets serves Brazilian clients in Africa, such as miner Vale and oil company Petrobras, and sees opportunities for others in the continent, particularly in two vast LNG projects in Mozambique with a combined investment projected at about $55 billion.
Paul Taylor, the banks’ global head for oil and gas, said he wanted Brazilian companies to look into the benefits and scale of Mozambican opportunities. The two rival LNG projects developed by Exxon Mobil and Anadarko Petroleum will tap large reserves found deep offshore, an area where Brazil has experience, and the gas will be liquefied onshore, Taylor said.
