Mozambican president Daniel Chapo said on Tuesday that he had received assurances from the head of TotalEnergies that the French oil company was ‘committed’ to resuming the Liquefied Natural Gas project in Cabo Delgado, after talks with Patrick Pouyanné.
“During the conversation, Pouyanné reaffirmed TotalEnergies‘ commitment to resuming the project, currently suspended since 2021, due to security challenges in the region,” wrote Daniel Chapo, in a message on his official account on the social network X.
The contact with the CEO of TotalEnergies took place on Monday and, according to Daniel Chapo, made it possible to discuss “the company’s progress and commitment to the development of the natural gas exploration project in Cabo Delgado”, which was suspended almost four years ago due to the terrorist attacks in that northern province.
“From our side, we reaffirm the importance of the project for Mozambique’s economic growth, which is why efforts are being made to guarantee the stability needed for its implementation,” said the Mozambican head of state.
The president of TotalEnergies said last October that almost 80% of the US$14 billion needed for the mega gas project in Cabo Delgado had been secured and that he intended to meet the same month in Maputo with the new Mozambican president, to be elected in the general elections on 9 October.
The meeting did not take place at the time, a period that has since been marked by strong social unrest and post-election demonstrations contesting the results announced, which gave victory to Daniel Chapo.
At a meeting with investors in October, Patrick Pouyanné recognised ‘progress on the ground’ in the fight against terrorism, which in 2021 led TotalEnergies to suspend its investment in Cabo Delgado, and underlined Mozambique’s ‘alliance’ with Rwanda, which ensures security in the area where the project is located, on the Afungi peninsula.
“There is an election in Mozambique [general elections on 9 October], a new president will arrive. I myself intend to visit Mozambique at the end of the month, to meet with him, to discuss how the new Mozambican authorities intend to maintain this alliance with Rwanda,” Patrick Pouyanné announced at the time, a visit that did not take place at the time.
Pouyanné added at the same time that the project for that area, ‘inherited from Anadarko’ – TotalEnergies bought that oil company’s 26.5% stake in Mozambique LNG (Area 1) in 2019 for US$3.9 billion (€3.7 billion) – had a ‘very large’ financing package of around US$14 billion (€13.4 billion), and that ‘70 to 80 %’ of that total is ‘confirmed’ by the financiers.
“They’re committed to it and we’re waiting for three of them to confirm their commitment as well, because it’s important. And some of them are in Western countries where, I would say, the position regarding the financing of energy projects, of oil and gas projects has changed. But they all tell us, repeat to us, that they are committed to the contract they signed. That’s why we’re waiting for the green light for this financing,” he explained, guaranteeing that they were only waiting for this confirmation in order to “restart the project”.
The goal, he insisted, is to start producing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Afungi in 2029, which implied that the project was expected to ‘restart in 2024’, which did not happen.
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as one of the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
TotalEnergies, leader of the Area 1 consortium, is developing the construction of a plant in Afungi, near Palma, to produce and export natural gas.
Lusa