By Matthew Hill and Borges Nhamire<\/b><\/p>\n
Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>TotalEnergies SE Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne plans to visit Mozambique this week to assess conditions for restarting the company\u2019s giant liquefied natural gas project that was put on hold in 2021 because of Islamic State-linked violence, according to two government officials from the southeast African nation.<\/p>\n Pouyanne will travel to Cabo Delgado province, where the project is located, one of the officials said. It\u2019s unclear if the company will announce plans to resume what was previously touted as Africa\u2019s biggest private investment, costing at least $20 billion.<\/p>\n TotalEnergies declined to comment. Instituto Nacional de Petroleo, the oil and gas regulator, didn\u2019t respond to an email seeking comment sent outside normal working hours.<\/p>\n A recommencement of the project would come at a critical time for Mozambique, whose entire economy is worth less than the construction cost of TotalEnergies\u2019s LNG plant. Revenues from the project would be important to servicing the its sole $900 million eurobond after government debt soared to more than 100% of gross domestic product. The Mozambique LNG project could also play a key role in easing Europe\u2019s energy crunch as Russia squeezes supplies.<\/p>\n Encroaching rebel attacks at the end of 2020 prompted the company to evacuate staff at the site. In March 2021, as TotalEnergies announced plans to restart, there was a major raid on Palma, the town closest to the development, leading the company to declare force majeure.<\/p>\n The Mozambican government asked for military help from Rwanda and a regional bloc later that year to contain the insurgency. The security situation has since improved, especially along the coastal strip in the far north where the project is located.<\/p>\n Pouyanne said a year ago during a trip to Maputo, Mozambique\u2019s capital, that on his next visit he would travel to Cabo Delgado to see if life had returned to normal to allow the project to resume.<\/p>\n For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Matthew Hill and Borges Nhamire Africa-Press – Mozambique. TotalEnergies SE Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne plans to visit Mozambique this week to assess conditions for restarting the company\u2019s giant liquefied natural gas project that was put on hold in 2021 because of Islamic State-linked violence, according to two government officials from the southeast African […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":33447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-33448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\n