Page 17 - AfrOil Week 02 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Drilling had started in September 2019 but was ENH. The partners took a final investment deci-
halted in April last year after restrictions were sion (FID) on the plan in 2017.
put in place to prevent the pandemic’s spread. ExxonMobil is also leading the 15.2mn tpy
Coral FLNG, situated in the offshore Area 4 Rovuma LNG project which will also draw from
concession, will be the first among several LNG Area 4’s 2.4 trillion cubic metre resource base.
projects planned in northern Mozambique to But the US major has held off on taking an FID
start production. INP noted that the venture was in light of the pandemic’s impact on the global
still on track for first gas in 2022. gas market.
The plant will produce 3.4mn tonnes per year France’s Total and its partners are targeting a
(tpy) of LNG. Eni reported in November that the 2024 launch for their 13.1mn tpy Mozambique
topsides for the FLNG had been completed. Its LNG project, which will use gas from the Area
hull was finished in January 2020. 1 concession neighbouring Area 4. But there are
Eni operates Coral FLNG on behalf of rising security concerns about the project fol-
its MRZ partners, which besides ExxonMo- lowing a series of attacks by Islamists. Total is
bil include China National Petroleum Corp. reported to have evacuated some of its workers
(CNPC), Portugal’s Galp, South Korea’s KOGAS at the site this month after a strike by militants
and Mozambique’s national oil company (NOC) within the project concession area. ™

Analyst: LNG construction sites

key to fighting in Mozambique

MOZAMBIQUE CONSTRUCTION sites for onshore facilities insurgents, he noted.
related to a large-scale LNG project appear to be France’s Total is currently working to build
a focal point of the campaign by Islamist insur- an onshore natural gas liquefaction plant and
gents to seize control of Mozambique’s northern associated facilities on the Afungi Peninsula for
Cabo Delgado Province, according to a repre- the Mozambique LNG project. The complex will
sentative of the Verisk Maplecroft consultancy. use gas from an offshore block known as Area 1
Alexandre Raymakers, a senior Africa ana- to produce LNG for export. The French com-
lyst for the consultancy, commented earlier this pany puts the total cost of this project at $20bn
week that troops affiliated with Ahlu Sunna and has already arranged to cover most of this
Wa-Jamo (ASWJ) were working to tie Mozam- sum with $14.9bn in loans from commercial
bican troops down in areas near the LNG and development banks. ™
construction sites on the Afungi Peninsula.
Even though these high-value sites are already
strongly defended, the armed forces, known
as Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique
(FADM), are working to keep them out of the
insurgents’ hands, he said.
As a result, he commented, ASWJ’s other
units have been able to step up their efforts to
take control of larger towns in Cabo Delgado.
Since most FADM troops are not in those towns,
the Islamist group has been able to “create a nar-
rative that the government can’t defend its own
people,” he was quoted as saying by The Africa
Report.
Meanwhile, Raymakers continued, Mozam-
bique’s government has not yet formulated a
comprehensive strategy for pushing the insur-
gents back. And since President Filipe Nyusi has
indicated that he is open to foreign assistance,
but not in the form of “boots on the ground,”
attempts to combat ASWJ are likely to be
time-consuming, he said.
In the meantime, he remarked, “the civilian
population is bearing the brunt” of the fighting
in northern Mozambique. Civilians are also
being forced to pay taxes to ASWJ to fund the Mozambique LNG will process gas from the offshore Area 1 block (Image: Total)

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