Coral Sul FLNG Eni
Drilling & Production

Galp locks horns with Mozambique in multimillion-dollar tax row after offshore stake sale

Reuters

Portuguese energy company Galp has filed an arbitration case against Mozambique over a tax dispute, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) website showed.

The case, which was registered on June 26, centres around Galp's sale in 2024 of its 10 per cent stake in the Area 4 Rovuma Basin project offshore Mozambique to XRG, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and government suggestions that Galp owed a larger capital gains tax amount than it paid.

Galp received about $881 million after finalising the deal in 2025 and held that this was inclusive of capital gains taxes.

The Mozambican tax authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Area 4 includes Eni's operational Coral South floating liquefied natural gas platform and its sister Coral North FLNG project, which is currently under development, as well as an onshore LNG terminal project proposed by operator ExxonMobil.

(Reporting by Custodia Cossa and Wendell Roelf; Writing by Nilutpal Timsina; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)