Page 4 - AfrOil Week 07 2021

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

otal)
(Image: Total)
(Image: T
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

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

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