The country director of TotalEnergies, Maxime Rabilloud, invited around one hundred people, including companies contracted and subcontracted by the company, to a videoconference on May 27, according to the Africa Intelligence news portal on Monday, June 9.
According to the outlet, the goal was to discuss the new security measures introduced by the oil multinational at the Afungi site, where the construction of two units of the Mozambique LNG project is planned (with a total capacity of 13.1 million tonnes per year).
The 120 participants — mostly representatives of CCS JV, the consortium chosen to lead the project (formed by Saipem, McDermott International, and Chiyoda), as well as subcontractors such as WBHO and Gabriel Couto — were informed that the LNG park area on the Afungi peninsula will be completely inaccessible by land, whether for material deliveries or personnel movement. Supplies, construction materials, and workers will therefore have to arrive exclusively by sea or air, since Afungi has an airstrip built by the contractor Gabriel Couto. After a 20-minute presentation by Rabilloud, accompanied by some of his top collaborators, the meeting ended without participants being allowed to ask questions.
The full protection of the site — which will be completely fenced off and monitored by surveillance cameras (CCTV) — is, therefore, the only way TotalEnergies sees to lift the force majeure clause by mid-2025, as announced by the company’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, in early May.
Security in Cabo Delgado province has deteriorated since 2017, due to the actions of self-proclaimed Islamic groups, which led to the declaration of a state of emergency in April 2021 and the temporary suspension of the project, which had been officially launched in 2019 by TotalEnergies’ former operator, Anadarko. Doubts about the long-term presence of the 3,500 Rwandan troops deployed to the region since July 2021 have forced the French company to adopt drastic measures.
Africa Intelligence reports that to ensure strict enforcement of the new security regime outlined by Rabilloud during the May 27 meeting, a security audit will be conducted for all contracted and subcontracted companies.
Mozambique has three approved development projects for the exploitation of the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma Basin, considered among the largest in the world, all located off the coast of Cabo Delgado province.
Two of these projects are larger in scale and plan to transport gas from the seabed to the mainland, where it will be cooled in a plant and then exported by sea in liquid form.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium) and had made progress until works were suspended indefinitely after the armed attack in Palma in March 2021, at which time the French energy company declared it would only resume operations when the area was secure. The other is the still-unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium).
The Coral Sul FLNG project is operated by Eni on behalf of Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV), which includes Italian major Eni, ExxonMobil, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), holding a 70% stake. The remaining 30% is equally divided among ENH, Kogas, and more recently ADNOC, which acquired a 10% stake previously held by Galp. The Coral Sul FLNG vessel was built by the consortium of Technip Energies, JGC, and Samsung Heavy Industries. This same trio is in talks with Eni regarding the supply of a similar vessel for the exploitation of Coral Norte.
Source: Diário Económico
