Page 6 - AsiaElec Week 01 2021

AsiaElec GAS-FIRED GENERATION AsiaElec

Total asks some staff to vacate

Mozambique LNG site on safety concerns

MOZAMBIQUE FRANCE’S Total is reported to have asked made threats that they may target it in the future.
some of the staff working on the construction In a separate Bloomberg report from January
of Mozambique LNG to vacate the site on secu- 1, the news service cited Total as saying it had
rity concerns. This comes as attacks by Islamist “temporarily reduced its workforce on site in
militants in the region have been taking place response to the prevailing environment”. The
increasingly closer to the site of the LNG termi- company added that the situation was being
nal in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado reviewed continuously.
Province. Total also told Bloomberg that the coronavi-
Citing sources familiar with the matter, rus (COVID-19) pandemic had further weighed
Bloomberg reported on January 2 that fighters on the decision to reduce personnel at the
from a group aligned with Islamic State had Mozambique LNG site. Indeed, Mozambique
attacked the nearby village of Quitunda. This LNG was the site of the country’s first reported
is where Total is relocating communities from COVID-19 cases in April 2020. According to
other parts of the concession as it builds Mozam- local media, a new outbreak was detected at the
bique LNG’s export facilities and other infra- project in December.
structure, according to the sources. Quitunda is The attacks significantly heighten the risk
located less than 1 km (0.62 miles) from the air- associated with the $20bn Mozambique LNG
strip the company built within its construction project, which represents Africa’s largest private
camp’s perimeter fence. investment. However, work continues for now,
The attack, which was repelled by Mozam- and in late December, South Korea’s Daewoo
bican government forces, was the first within Engineering & Construction won a fabrication
Total’s concession area and followed another contract for certain components of the pro-
attack on a town less than 5 km (3 miles) from ject’s two liquefaction trains, worth KRW500bn
the construction camp earlier that week. The ($459mn). Daewoo said it would be tasked with
LNG terminal site itself is heavily guarded and the construction of components such as steel
has not yet been attacked, but militants have frames, machinery, piping and electricity. ™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 06•January•2021