Construction of the Total Energies gas liquefaction plant in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, will resume in July.
According to the executive director of Saipem (Italian engineering company Saipem), Alessandro Puliti, quoted by the specialized portal for the oil sector Upstream, the restart of the project will be done gradually from July this year.
Alessandro Puliti was speaking during an internet intervention (“webcast”) held last week to present the results for the fourth quarter of 2022 to analysts.
Saipem leads the CCS consortium, which also includes Japan’s Chiyoda and McDermott from the United States of America, responsible for building two gas liquefaction lines with a combined capacity of 13 million tons per year (mtpa) in Afungi.
The construction of the industrial complex was suspended in 2021 by the French oil company TotalEnregies, after an attack on the neighboring town of Palma, following the armed insurgency that has hit Cabo Delgado since 2017.
The work is the largest open private investment in Africa, budgeted at 20 billion euros, includes gas capture lines at great depth, in the Rovuma Basin, 40 kilometers offshore, liquefaction and export piers for special cargo ships.
TotalEnergies announced, at the beginning of February, that it had asked a human rights specialist, Jean-Christophe Rufin, a doctor, writer and diplomat, to assess the situation in Cabo Delgado and then make a decision.
Alessandro Puliti said that work should resume in July, with a renegotiation of certain parts of the original engineering and construction contract worth €3.5 billion, awarded in 2019.
Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency for five years with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
Investments
The cost of the natural gas project located in the Rovuma Basin will determine the resumption of TotaEnergies’ activities in Mozambique, defended the company’s CEO in February.
With the suspension of the project, investments in the country drastically reduced. From July to September 2022, according to the Central Bank, the extractive industry sector, which was the largest source of incoming Foreign Direct Investment, fell 99.6 percent compared to the same period in 2021.
