Progressive security in Cabo Delgado should allow contacts to be re-established and a new schedule for the Rovuma gas megaproject to be drawn up, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Max Tonela said today.
The project was halted in March due to armed violence caused by insurgents.
“The teams are in ‘stand-by’ and there was a need to demobilise several contracts to mitigate or minimise costs during the interruption period,” Tonela told journalists during a visit to the province.
“What we are going to do, following the normalisation of the security situation, is to resume contacts to draw up the new schedule, but that will be done in due course,” he said.
The resumption of projects will happen as soon as “security conditions and long-term stability are assured,” the minister also said, in line with what has been announced by those involved since March.
Asked by journalists about whether the increase in security corresponds to a safe perimeter around the gas projects, Tonela said that tranquillity should reach the entire province, without limits.
“The aim of the government is for there to be security in all areas affected by terrorist action and that is also the perspective that we have with the [companies] concessionaires of the gas projects,” that is, to allow “the populations to return and benefit from the projects,” he said.
The Area 1 megaproject, led by French oil company Total, which is the largest private investment in Africa (US$25 billion), is under construction and was due to begin in 2024, before it was suspended in March.
Armed groups have been terrorising Cabo Delgado province since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
