Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Wednesday said the force majeure on its Mozambique LNG project has been lifted following a significant improvement in the security situation at the site.
The consortium, led by operator Total Energies, had declared force majeure in May 2021 and suspended construction work that began in 2019 on the 13.12 million metric tonnes per annum LNG project due to a deteriorating security situation. Force majeure refers to unforeseeable circumstances that prevent a party from fulfilling a contract.
The consortium has now notified the Mozambique government of its decision to end the force majeure. “Withdrawal of the force majeure enables construction activities to restart for early completion of project,” ONGC said in a statement.
ONGC (16 per cent), along with Bharat Petroleum Corporation (10 per cent) and Oil India (4 per cent), jointly holds 30 per cent in the project -one of the world’s largest gas discoveries.
The Mozambique LNG project was initially expected to begin production in 2018 but has been repeatedly delayed due to an oversupplied LNG market, project financing hurdles and local violence.
