Africa-Press – Mozambique. The president of Mozambique said on Thursday that the resumption of natural gas megaprojects is ‘fundamental’ given the ‘promising stability’ in Cabo Delgado, the scene of terrorist attacks, saying that financial decisions cannot be an argument at this stage.
‘This is fundamental because financial decisions cannot now be a problem associated with the terrorist situation. This project already existed, it’s old. That means there was clarity in its execution. It can’t run aground for this reason, let’s find others,’ Filipe Nyusi said at the opening this morning in Maputo of the 10th edition of the Mozambique Mining and Energy Conference (MMEC).
Specifically, he called on the concessionaires of Area 1, led by TotalEnergies, to ‘accelerate the development of the resumption of onshore projects’ in view of the ‘gradual promising stability’ on the Afungi peninsula, in the district of Palma, Cabo Delgado, and that in Area 4, onshore, led by ExxonMobil, ‘the process leading to the Final Investment Decision should be accelerated, with the necessary adjustments to the Development Plan approved in 2018’.
Speaking at the conference, Nyusi said that the ‘delay’ in realising this type of project ‘causes problems’ because the ‘expectations of the countries are enormous’ and ‘people think that part of their problem may have been solved’.
‘Great efforts have been made by everyone in Mozambique, by the Defence and Security Forces, by our friends and sister countries to stabilise [Cabo Delgado], putting the country in a better or identical situation to the countries where the [terrorist] conflicts occur. So the stability argument often doesn’t stick. And the delay in itself causes this impatience,’ said Nyusi, insisting on the need to “speed up these projects”.
The French multinational TotalEnergies is building a plant near Palma to produce and export natural gas valued at $20 billion (around €18.6 billion ). However, the project has been suspended since 2021 due to the terrorist attacks.
‘We have made progress with the suppliers and different contractors, including on the cost side. They have heard our message, they want to reactivate the project, and we are now in the process of reactivating the global financing, which should happen in the coming months,’ said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné on 7 February.
On the same occasion, he added that the oil company hopes to restart construction work and onshore natural gas exploration by the end of the year, guaranteeing to monitor the situation on the ground constantly: ‘What I don’t want to happen is to decide to bring people back and then have to force them out again; that would be very complex.’
ExxonMobil said last July that investment in natural gas in Mozambique is on track for a Final Investment Decision in 2025, with production starting at the end of the decade.
‘A lot still depends on the security situation, which has been very well managed,’ said Peter Clarke, the company’s vice president for oil and gas exploration, at a conference in Vancouver.
Exxon’s project in Cabo Delgado — a northern province affected by terrorist attacks for more than six years—was expected to produce 15.2 million tonnes a year, but the company is currently forecasting annual production of 18 million tonnes.
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as one of the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant to export it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium), and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely after an armed attack on Palma in March 2021. The French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe.
The other is the still unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium, onshore).
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