Mozambique will hold its sixth round of oil and gas licensing round late in 2017 or in 2018, Augusto Macuvele, a senior official with Mozambique's National Petroleum Institute revealed on Tuesday, providing few details about the rounds, Reuters reports.

The Southern African nation has some 85 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, enough to supply Germany, Britain, France and Italy for nearly two decades.

Energy Minister Leticia da Silva Klemens has said that Eni should make a final investment decision on its first offshore deep-water Liquefied Natural Gas project in Mozambique by the end of this year.

U.S. oil company Anadarko is also expected to make its own investment decision on a separate LNG project by 2017.

With its vast offshore gas reserves it is possible to take at least five years after final investment decisions before gas production can begin.

Anita Fatunji