The Total Mozambique LNG Project in Afungi in the Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique, on September 29, 2022. Picture: Camille Lafont / AFP French energy giant TotalEnergies relaunched construction Thursday on a massive gas project in northern Mozambique that was halted for five years after a jihadist attack that claimed hundreds of lives. Reportedly the largest private investment in Africa’s energy infrastructure, the Mozambique liquefied natural gas project is expected to generate thousands of jobs and help make the country one of the world’s biggest LNG exporters.
TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne announced the restart of work at a ceremony near the site of the project in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province, which has been plagued by insurgency for around eight years. “I am delighted to announce the full restart of the Mozambique LNG project… The force majeure is over,” Pouyanne said at the event attended by President Daniel Chapo. The $20 billion project near the border with Tanzania was suspended after a 2021 jihadist attack that killed an estimated 800 people.
There are already more than 4 000 workers on site and 80 percent are Mozambican nationals, said Pouyanne, whose company owns a 26.5 percent stake in the Mozambique LNG consortium. “This project will make the region a new source of global energy security,” he said. TotalEnergies had already lifted in October the force majeure suspension it declared after the bloodshed.
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It is seeking compensation of $4.5 billion in cost overruns linked to the delay from the Mozambique government. It is also pushing for a 10-year extension to its concession, more than double the length of the delay, but it was not immediately clear if Maputo would approve.
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