The French oil multinational, TotalEnergies, which leads the Mozambique LNG project, located on the Afungi peninsula, Palma district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, could resume operations in the next three months.
The Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, revealed this on Thursday during a ceremony to welcome the Mozambican community in the diaspora on the occasion of Christmas and the end of the year, which took place in Maputo.
“Onshore projects are expected to resume, especially the LNG project in Area 1, in the first quarter of next year,” said Nyusi.
The resumption, Nyusi explained, is due to the efforts made by the Mozambique Defence and Security Forces (FDS) supported by a military contingent from the Rwandan Defence Force and the Southern African Development Community Military Mission (SAMIM). As a result, terrorist attacks have tended to slow down, especially in recent months.
In April 2021, TotalEnergies declared force majeure to suspend all activities on the project, due to the intensification of terrorist attacks, which conditioned the security situation at the shipyards.
The Mozambique LNG Project, budgeted at 20 billion dollars, began with the discovery of more than 65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which led to a Final Investment Decision in 2019.
The project includes two liquefaction units with an expansion capacity of up to 43 million tonnes per year.
Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado has been the target of terrorist attacks that have led to the deaths of more than 3,000 citizens and the flight of more than 900,000 people who have sought shelter in safer places, triggering a humanitarian crisis.
However, during the meeting with Mozambicans living in the diaspora, Nyusi praised their commitment to the sustainable development and well-being of the country, guaranteeing that their concerns will gradually be resolved.
In his speech, Mozambicans living in the diaspora asked for facilities to issue identity cards, passports and other personal and viable documents to fulfil their rights and duties in the host countries.
“As nationals living abroad, their rights are recognised and safeguarded, such as the issuing of documents, as they have said, and political participation in electoral processes for the countries where we have managed to do so, and with a tendency to extend,” said the Head of State.
The Mozambican authorities have managed to set up services to issue personal documents in 15 countries, including South Africa, the United States, Germany, Portugal, Kenya, Rwanda, Belgium and the United Kingdom.