Page 4 - AfrElec Week 07 2021

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec

Mozambique LNG project may be

back on track soon

Total’s CEO says work may resume by the end of March, pointing to his company’s security
agreement with the Mozambican government and insisting production will begin in 2024

MOZAMBIQUE PATRICK Pouyanné, the CEO of France’s Total, quarter we should be able to restart the work,” he
has said that his company aims to resume work was quoted as saying by Bloomberg and other
WHAT: on the Mozambique LNG project before the agencies. “That’s the objective that we set to our-
Pouyanné says end of March, and there are indications that his selves jointly with the government.”
Mozambique LNG can optimism is not misplaced. He expressed these
restart construction on hopes last week, when he reminded reporters On site and on schedule
the Afungi Peninsula soon that Total had signed a security agreement with According to press reports, the proposed perim-
Mozambique’s government in order to safeguard eter will include not only the construction site
WHY: its construction site on the Afungi Peninsula. but also related facilities such as a work camp.
The company and its The French company and its non-operating It will also cover the town of Palma and its
partners have had to partners in the Mozambique LNG consortium bay, as well as two islands offshore, and would
evacuate staff following have been building a natural gas liquefaction extend past the town of Olombe in the south. It
attacks on nearby areas plant and other onshore facilities supporting the will not include Mocímboa da Praia, a port in
by Islamist insurgents development of gas at the offshore block known Cabo Delgado that Total and its partners had
as Area 1 at the site. However, they evacuated been using as a delivery point for the equipment
WHAT NEXT: most workers in January and have slowed the needed to build the Mozambique LNG plant on
If FADM upholds pace of operations. the Afungi Peninsula before losing access to it
its commitments, Under the agreement between Total and the last August.
Mozambique LNG will Mozambican government, all areas of the Cabo Pouyanné also said that Total and its partners
have a better chance of Delgado province within 25 km of the site must hoped to remain on schedule even though they
beginning production on be secured by the country’s armed forces, known had to evacuate around 9,000 workers from the
schedule in 2024 as Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique onshore site earlier this year, bringing the size of
(FADM). According to Pouyanné, if FADM the team working at the site down to about 1,000.
upholds its part of the deal, the investors will be The Mozambique LNG consortium is still work-
able to achieve their objectives. ing to drive the offshore and engineering aspects
“If, on the ground, the armed forces and the of the project forward, and plans to bring the
police are able to re-control the area that we liquefaction plant’s first 6.44mn tonne per year
agreed together, I think by the end of the first (tpy) production train on stream in 2024 have

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 18•February•2021