Page 6 - GLNG Week 07 2022

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Pouyanné says Mozambique LNG

restart may take more than a year

PROJECTS & TOTALENERGIES’ CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, he was quoted as saying by LNG Prime. “We’ll
COMPANIES has qualified his recent statements about the see, we observe.”
possibility that work on the Mozambique He continued: “There is no pressure for us to
LNG project may resume before the end of exit out of force majeure. We know that when
this year. we will say, ‘Yes, we can come back,’ it will take
Speaking with analysts during a quarterly 6 months really to start up again. But again, my
earnings call on February 10, Pouyanné stressed priority, it’s a matter of sustainability of that and
that security conditions would determine the human rights. And so we’ll not relaunch the pro-
date of the restart. The Mozambique LNG pro- ject as long as I see photos from refugee camps
ject has been idle since late last March, when the around the site.”
French major and its partners declared force The TotalEnergies CEO had said during a
majeure in response to a wave of attacks by Ahlu visit to Mozambique’s capital city on January 31
Sunna Wa-Jamo, a separatist Islamist group that he hoped to restart the project as soon as
with ties to Islamic State (Daesh), on commu- possible. “When I will see that life is back to nor-
nities near its construction site on the Afungi mality, which means having some state services
Peninsula. and population, then the project can restart,”
The TotalEnergies CEO also acknowledged Reuters quoted him as saying. “My objective is Pouyanné
that Mozambique’s armed forces had made pro- that we will restart in 2022.”
gress on the Afungi Peninsula, with help from The French major is leading the Mozam- stressed
the troops deployed by Rwanda and member bique LNG project through its subsidiary Total
states of the Southern African Development E&P Mozambique Area 1, which holds a 26.5% that security
Community (SADC). For example, he said, stake. The remaining equity in the consortium is
Maputo has managed to regain control of Palma, divided between two Japanese firms, Mitsui and conditions would
the town closest to the Mozambique LNG con- Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOG- determine the
sortium’s natural gas liquefaction plant. But he MEC), which have a combined stake of 20%;
also pointed out that the coalition had not yet Mozambique’s national oil company (NOC) date of the
regained full control over Cabo Delgado and said ENH, with 15%; Bharat Petroleum (India), with
that his company was waiting for normal life to 10%; ONGC Videsh (India), with 10%; Beas restart.
resume. Rovuma Energy Mozambique (a 60:40 joint
The French major wants to see the civilian venture between ONGC Videsh and Oil India
population return to the area, he explained. Ltd, or OIL), with 10%; and PTTEP (Thailand),
“That will be the signal. We will not build a plant with 8.5%.
in a country where we’ll be surrounded by sol- The partners have said they will extract gas
diers. It does not work like that,” he remarked. from Area 1, which lies offshore Mozambique
Pouyanné declined to speculate on exactly within the Rovuma basin. They intend to process
how long this process might take. He did indi- the gas at the LNG plant on the Afungi Penin-
cate, though, that work might not resume before sula. This facility will eventually have two pro-
the end of 2022 and that TotalEnergies was not duction trains, each with a capacity of 6.44mn
in a rush. “Maybe it will take a year. I don’t know,” tonnes per year (tpy).™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 18•February•2022