Page 6 - GLNG Week 07 2021

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

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

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

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 19•February•2021