The Mozambican government last week defended the resumption of the natural gas production project by the consortium led by French multinational TotalEnergies “as soon as possible”, pointing out that “the security conditions are in place”.
“”There are very clear signs that the security conditions are in place,” said the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Carlos Zacarias, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Ministry’s eighth coordinating council, which took place in the city of Lichinga, Niassa province, northern Mozambique, from Monday to Wednesday (16 August).
Minister Zacarias added that “at the moment, the government and TotalEnergies are working” so that the development of the natural gas project in Area 1 of the Rovuma basin, northern Mozambique, can be reactivated “as soon as possible”.
The consortium led by the French oil company activated the “force majeure” clause, suspending construction work on the plant that will produce liquefied natural gas, after an attack by armed insurgents on the district of Palma, near the perimeter of the project, on 24 March 2021.
Carlos Zacarias said he could not “put forward a specific date” for the return of the TotalEnergies consortium to work on the plant but emphasised that the resumption would be “as soon as possible”.
“Naturally, we’re not going to talk about a specific date since there are more variables and there are more components that have to be ensured,” he emphasised.
The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy said that contacts are being made with TotalEnergies so that small and medium-sized Mozambican companies can take full advantage of the business opportunities that will be generated when the consortium returns to Palma.
With regard to the liquefied natural gas production project that is already being implemented in the Rovuma waters by a consortium led by the Italian multinational Eni, the minister expressed satisfaction with the pace of the project’s activity, emphasising the fact that it is already exporting this resource.
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves of the Rovuma basin, classified as one of the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant to export it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium), and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely after the armed attack on Palma in March 2021, when the French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe.
The other is the still unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium).
A third completed, smaller project also belongs to the Area 4 consortium and consists of a floating platform for capturing and processing gas for export directly at sea, which started up in November 2022.
