French multinational TotalEnergies has revised upward the budget for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) megaproject in Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin, in Cabo Delgado, setting the new total cost at 1.3 trillion meticais ($20.5 billion), announced the company’s chairman, Patrick Pouyanné.
According to Lusa, during the presentation of TotalEnergies’ third-quarter results last Thursday, Pouyanné clarified that “incorrect figures” had circulated in the international press, which cited a cost of $25 billion. “That is not at all the case. The revised budget is $20.5 billion, of which $4.5 billion corresponds to expenses incurred over the past four years during the suspension period,” he specified.
The budget update follows the formal lifting of the force majeure clause that had been in place since 2021, when work was halted due to instability caused by extremist attacks in the region. The project’s restart was officially communicated to the President of the Republic, Daniel Chapo, through a letter dated October 24.
According to TotalEnergies, the new figure incorporates accumulated costs related to detailed engineering, logistics, and maintenance of critical infrastructure during the suspension, now allowing the project to move directly into the construction phase. “Once all contractors have been remobilized, we will move into full construction mode. We are maintaining our target to deliver the first LNG shipment in the first half of 2029,” said Pouyanné.
Meanwhile, Mozambique’s head of state stated that TotalEnergies’ request to extend the project concession by an additional 10 years, as compensation for losses incurred during the suspension, will be subject to negotiation. “It’s a process that is not yet closed. We need to understand the rationale behind the proposal and present our own arguments in order to reach a consensus,” Daniel Chapo told the press at the end of his five-day official visit to the United States.
The company justified the extension request as a means to “partially offset the economic impact of the suspension,” reiterating that security conditions in Afungi are now adequate for work to resume on-site. The Mozambican government expects the concession talks to lead to a balanced agreement that safeguards national interests while ensuring the project’s execution timeline — a project regarded as vital to the country’s economy.
In recent months, the Area 1 Rovuma Basin LNG megaproject has gained new momentum, with TotalEnergies officially announcing the lifting of the force majeure clause that had suspended operations in 2021 following escalating armed violence in Cabo Delgado.
The project restart — now with a revised budget of 1.3 trillion meticais ($20.5 billion) — comes after significant improvements in security conditions and strategic agreements with regional partners such as Rwanda. At the same time, the Mozambican government and TotalEnergies have begun negotiations on the company’s proposal to extend the project concession by ten years, presented as a way to compensate for the losses accumulated during the four-year halt.
Contractor remobilization is already underway on the ground, with commercial LNG production expected to begin in the first half of 2029. This series of developments marks a new phase of both optimism and challenges for Mozambique in a project considered vital to the national economy.
Source: Diário Económico
