Africa-Press – Mozambique. Maxime Rabilloud, the Managing Director in Mozambique of the French oil and gas company TotalEnergies, on Saturday met business owners from Palma district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, to discuss the local private sector’s participation in the Mozambique LNG project, which TotalEnergies heads.
The Mozambique LNG Project, located on the Afungi peninsula in Palma, is budgeted at about 20 billion dollars. It was forced to halt operations in 2021 following a major terrorist attack against Palma town. However, the company is now preparing to resume the project, since security conditions have improved.
The Saturday meeting was aimed at aligning the expectations of Total Energies and local companies and strengthening channels of dialogue, at a time when hope is growing that TotalEnergies will lift the “Force Majeure” clause and work will resume on the megaproject.
Recently, Total Energies and the Northern Integrated Development Agency (ADIN) signed an agreement budgeted at 10 million dollars, aimed at boosting socio-economic development initiatives in Palma and the adjacent district of Mocímboa da Praia.
Local business owners in Palma expressed their concerns regarding youth unemployment, the stagnation of the district’s economy, and the exclusion of local companies not supplying goods and services to the multinational.
They also questioned the concentration of workers in the Afungi camp, which, in their view, hinders the flourishing of hotel, restaurant, and service businesses in Palma town.
“We have accommodations and restaurants without customers because workers are confined to Afungi. This limits the dynamism of the local economy”, said Momed Omar, a hotel entrepreneur.
For her part, Ema Salimo, who works in logistics, added “there’s a perception that not all products purchased by the project come from local businesses. We need more transparency and real opportunities for participation.”
In light of such concerns, Rabilloud acknowledged that there are communication gaps that have created misunderstandings, but guaranteed that the company intends to increase local purchases when operations resume.
“It was an important meeting. I noticed that there are communication gaps. I want to make it clear: there is no intention of reducing purchases from local businesses. On the contrary, with the lifting of Force Majeure, we will increase the participation of the local economy”, said Rabilloud.
Rabilloud also stressed that, currently, much of the food for the approximately 2,000 workers in Afungi is already purchased in Palma, both from agricultural producers and other local suppliers.
“Our commitment is to ensure that the benefits are felt by the communities and the business sector in Palma. I will be personally involved to ensure that this happens. We will maintain this ongoing dialogue. Our goal is to develop Mozambique, Cabo Delgado, and Palma in particular, and this will only be possible with the active participation of local communities and businesses”, he concluded.
Although no consensus was reached, the meeting was considered productive, and the parties scheduled a new meeting for 11 September. TotalEnergies promised to bring a specialized team to Palma to gather proposals and define concrete solutions.
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