In the first quarter of 2024, TotalEnergies officially declared the resumption of its Mozambique LNG project.
Work on the project has been halted since 2021, when a violent insurgency led by Islamic State-linked militants threatened the Cabo Delgado site, leading TotalEnergies to declare force majeure and halt construction.
In a press statement obtained by The Energy Republic, Chief Executive Officer at TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, said the company planned to restart the project before the end of this year as the security situation improved with the support of a regional military force, including Rwanda.
“TotalEnergies have indicated that they want to restart their Mozambique LNG project in January 2024,” a government source close to the process said, asking to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The ongoing violence in the northern Mozambican province has claimed thousands of lives since it broke out in 2017, disrupting multibillion-dollar investments, including the $20 billion LNG project in which TotalEnergies has a 26.5% stake.
“TotalEnergies has asked funders to get approval for the restart of the Mozambique LNG project in the first quarter of 2024,” said a second funding source with direct knowledge of the project.
Environmental activists, who last month urged funders to withdraw their financial support, criticized the project, which is expected to transform the economic fortunes of the impoverished southern African country.
