Mozambican businessmen showed on Wednesday, February 1, enthusiasm with the probable resumption of activity of the multinational oil company TotalEnergies in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique. One of the expectations of businessmen is the payment of debts to suppliers.
For the president of the Fiscal Policy, Customs and International Trade Department of the Confederation of Business Associations (CTA), Félix Machado, this return of the oil company brings some “oxygen” to the private sector, especially with the possibility of some debts being paid.
According to him, the Mozambican business community expects that, with the current recovery, the multinational company will contribute to several other areas of development in the country, that is, that it is not only focused on the oil and gas area.
“The recovery is not enough, we should see, later on, the contribution that TotalEnergies will bring to the Country, and not just notice what it will take from here. We want an effective contribution”, stressed the CTA source.
The reaction comes days after it is known that TotalEnergies’ CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, is expected to arrive in Maputo and visit the operation in Cabo Delgado soon, where he is expected to announce the details of the restart of the works in the two liquefaction plants.
According to reports, Patrick Pouyanné is expected to visit the country to discuss the resumption of work on the Liquefied Natural Gas megaproject (two 12.9 million ton liquefaction plants) in the Afungi peninsula, Cabo Delgado Province, northern Mozambique.
In March 2021, the oil company Total announced reasons of “force majeure” for the withdrawal of all personnel from northern Mozambique after the worsening armed violence caused by rebels following the attack on Palma near its gas project.
Cabo Delgado province has been plagued by conflict since 2017 that has terrorized populations. Armed rebel groups have been looting and massacring villages and towns across the province and a variety of attacks have been claimed by the ‘arm’ of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in that region.
The conflict has already caused more than 4000 deaths (data from The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project) and at least one million displaced people, according to an assessment made by the Mozambican authorities.
Since July 2022, a military offensive by Maputo, with support from Rwanda, and later by SADC, allowed a climate of greater security in the region that had not been felt for years, and recovered localities that were controlled by the rebels, such as the town of Mocímboa da Praia, occupied since 2020.
