Mozambique’s state petroleum company is building a port city to help develop the largest natural-gas discoveries in a decade offshore the southern African country.

The 18,000-hectare (44,500-acre) Palma development in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province will feature residences, industry, stores, parks, farming and tourist attractions constructed through a unit, Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos EP, or ENH, said in a statement. Public hearings on the proposal are being held today in Maputo, the capital, after previous sessions in Pemba and Palma, it said.

Mozambique may become the world’s third-largest natural gas producer in 2018 after companies such as Eni SpA of Italy and Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) begin output from reserves estimated at 250 trillion cubic feet. Proximity to gas-hungry India and the Far East is expected to spur investment and margins.

Tracus, a Maputo-based architectural company, started creating an urban development plan in August and the public consultation will help advance the strategy and draft proposal, ENH said.

A company known as Cabo Delgado Ports will invest $150 million initially and hold 30-year leases on ports in Pemba and Palma, Transport Minister Gabriel Muthisse said in January, according to website Club of Mozambique. The company is a joint venture between Cia Mocambicana de Hidrocarbonetos and Portos & Caminhos de Ferro de Mocambique, which are both state-owned.

Sasol Ltd. (SOL), the world’s biggest producer of motor fuel from coal, said this month it’s considering a gas-to-liquids plant in Mozambique with Eni and ENH.

Eni alone will invest $50 billion in the country in the next few months, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said, according to news agency Ansa.

Source: Bloomberg