After a five-year hiatus, French supermajor TotalEnergies is formally relaunching on Thursday the $20-billion Mozambique LNG project at an event led by Mozambique’s President Daniel Francisco Chapo and attended by TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné.
At the end of last year, TotalEnergies lifted the four-year-long force majeure on the Mozambique LNG project, which was stalled due to the precarious security situation near the site of the planned export facility. The project site is close to the town of Palma in the Cabo Delgado province, where Islamic State-affiliated militants were active for years.
The $20-billion LNG export project was halted nearly five years ago due to a deteriorated security situation.
In the spring of 2021, following Islamist militant attacks in towns close to the construction site, TotalEnergies declared force majeure and suspended works on the project. Mozambique LNG was Africa’s largest foreign investment when announced.
Due to the force majeure, the goal to achieve first LNG production has slipped, first to 2027, and later, to 2029.
The woes for the project continued even after TotalEnergies lifted the force majeure last year.
In November, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) filed a criminal complaint in France against TotalEnergies for complicity in war crimes, torture, and enforced disappearance at the Mozambique LNG site in 2021.
TotalEnergies said that it has not been formally served with this complaint by the plaintiff and that it firmly rejects all such accusations.
The relaunch of the project is a major milestone for Mozambique’s economy and signals confidence of international partners in the energy, institutional, and human potential of the country, the president’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
Mozambique expects the project to boost Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and economic growth and consolidate the country’s positioning as a regional energy hub and a player on the LNG export market.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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