Page 4 - AfrOil Week 50 2020

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

(Image: Anadarko)

Security concerns

mounting in Mozambique

LNG projects are facing more risk because of Islamists’ continued clashes

with the Mozambican armed forces and the swelling number of refugees

SECURITY issues have been a concern for LNG plant continued.
Total (France), Eni (Italy) and other interna- Nevertheless, concerns about the possibil-
WHAT: tional oil companies (IOCs) pursuing natural ity of disruption to the project have lingered.
ASWJ has stepped up gas development and liquefaction projects in Indeed, they have probably grown in recent
attempts to gain territory Mozambique for some time. Since 2017, that weeks, as ASWJ has stepped up its campaign to
in the northern Cabo country’s northern Cabo Delgado Province has seize territory in Cabo Delgado.
Delgado Province. been racked by conflict between Ahlu Sunnah FADM did announce on November 20
Wa-Jamo (ASWJ), a separatist group that has that it had succeeded in retaking a village in
WHY: links to the Islamic State (Daesh), and the armed Muidumbe district. However, other sources
The separatist group forces, known as Forças Armadas de Defesa de reported on November 29 that the Islamist
is targeting areas near Moçambique (FADM). group appeared to be responsible for an attack
Mozambique LNG’s
liquefaction plant. Conditions took a turn for the worse earlier that killed at least 25 soldiers and injured 15
in August of this year, when ASWJ fighters took more in Matambalale, another village in the
WHAT NEXT: control of Mocímboa da Praia, a port in Cabo same district.
If the conflict spreads Delgado that Total and its partners had been ASWJ then mounted another offensive last
across the region, it could using as a delivery point for the equipment week in Mute, located in the Palma district of
disrupt billions of dollars needed to build the Mozambique LNG plant Cabo Delgado. FADM responded by sending
in LNG investments. on the Afungi Peninsula. The French major soldiers to the village, which is just 20 km away
responded to this development by redirecting from the site where Total is building the Mozam-
its shipments to another point, and work on the bique LNG plant.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 16•December•2020