The French oil and gas giant, which hopes to resume construction of liquefaction trains in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province this year, has sent a new project manager to Maputo.
Despite repeated postponements of the lifting of the force majeure on Mozambique LNG, TotalEnergies, the operator of the project to build two 13m-tonne liquefaction trains, is preparing for a possible resumption this year. The French major has appointed a new project manager, Nicolas Cambefort, who has arrived in Maputo.
He will replace Stéphane Le Galles, who in just a few years had built up an extensive network in Mozambique. Cambefort was previously based in Paris, where he was in charge of developing offshore wind farms for the oil company. This is the first position in Africa for the engineer trained at France’s École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers. He has worked in Norway, the United States and Indonesia since joining the group in 1999.
Cambefort will work alongside Maxime Rabilloud, who has been head of the French group’s subsidiary in Mozambique since 2021. Rabilloud, a former head of TotalEnergies’ Brazilian branch, is eagerly awaiting the resumption of Mozambique LNG, which was halted in December 2020 and has been legally suspended since April 2021 following a declaration of force majeure.

Nicolas Cambefort, TotalEnergies’ new project manager in Mozambique
TotalEnergies is waiting to see how Mozambique’s new president, Daniel Francisco Chapo, will handle the violent political crisis triggered by last October’s elections which has resulted in dozens of deaths.
Opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane of the Podemos party repeatedly denounced the insincerity and violence of the Frelimo government during and after the elections (AI, 17/12/24). Total is also waiting to find out how Chapo will work with the thousands of Rwandan soldiers that have been tasked with securing the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado since 2021.
US guarantees
The other reason for TotalEnergies to wait is the US Exim Bank, which has postponed its decision to provide financial support for Mozambique LNG (AI, 13/12/24). US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House on 20 January will inevitably lead to the replacement of the entire board of directors of the US export credit agency.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné hopes that the new Republican administration’s pro-hydrocarbon bias will make it easier to validate US Exim Bank’s guarantee. This support is essential, as the Netherlands’ import-export bank and those of various other countries are also waiting for the green light from their US counterpart before deciding to invest.
US major ExxonMobil, which operates on the same site as Mozambique LNG on the Afungi peninsula in Cabo Delgado, expects to make its final investment decision on Rovuma LNG by the end of this year or in early 2026. It is waiting to receive the FEED (front end engineering design) studies, the contract for which was awarded late last year to Technip Energies and JGC Corp.
ExxonMobil is also supporting TotalEnergies in its deal with US Exim Bank to obtain the necessary guarantees for Mozambique LNG. Rovuma LNG, which will theoretically have a capacity of 18m tonnes, will also depend on US export guarantees.