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Mozambique: TotalEnergies’ CEO says restarting gas project is “premature

The resumption of TotalEnergies' gas project in Mozambique is considered premature by its CEO, due to disagreements over the costs associated with the restart. The project had been suspended since 2021 following a jihadist attack.

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The resumption of TotalEnergies’ gas project in Mozambique is “premature” at this stage, due to disagreements over the costs associated with the restart, TotalEnergies boss Patrick Pouyanné said on Thursday.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi had assured on Wednesday that the conditions had been met to allow TotalEnergies to resume its huge natural gas project in the country, suspended since 2021 following a major jihadist attack a few kilometers away. “I think that today it is still premature, because our team on the project is working with the principals with a view to being able to relaunch the project, but on condition that the costs are controlled, which is fundamental for us,” said Pouyanné, questioned by financial analysts during a conference call.

“I said recently that we need contractors to be reasonable. Some of them aren’t, so we’re going to re-bid some of the packages, because there’s no way we’re going to accept undue costs,” the TotalEnergies CEO also said, on the occasion of the release of the company’s financial results for the first quarter of 2023. He nevertheless considered that we were in the “last stage” before a restart.

The poor but resource-rich, Muslim-majority province of Cabo Delgado in the northeast, which borders Tanzania, has been plagued by violence from armed groups since late 2017. Nearly 4,700 people have already been killed, including over 2,000 civilians. One million were forced to leave their homes. At the end of March 2021, a coordinated attack on the coastal town of Palma forced the French group to suspend a 16.5 billion euro natural gas project until further notice.

Facilities still under construction on the Afungi Peninsula have been evacuated. TotalEnergies has been cautious for several months about the possibility of restarting its operations in Mozambique. Its CEO visited the country in February and met with the Mozambican president. Last month, the French giant’s Italian subcontractor, Saipem, announced that it was preparing to resume work, saying that it had been informed that “safety had improved.

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