Maputo — The French oil and gas company, TotalEnergies, has reiterated its commitment to work in Mozambique, taking into account that over the last 15 years the government has created effective regulations that are attractive to private investment.
According to the company's Chairperson and Managing Director in Mozambique, Maxime Rabilloud, who was speaking on Wednesday, during a high-level panel entitled "Overview of Global Markets - Attracting Investment in the Next Phase of Energy Projects', at the 8th Mozambican Gas and Energy Summit and Exhibition, a two-day event taking place in Maputo, the commitment of the Mozambican state ensures investment for the long term.
The TotalEnergies project, in Palma district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, is budgeted at 23 billion dollars, easily the largest foreign investment in Mozambique to date. However, it was interrupted in 2021 when Islamist terrorists attacked Palma town.
The French company declared "force majeure', and withdrew all its staff from Palma, but in recent months it has repeatedly stressed that it intends to resume the project.
"I would like to recognise the government's commitment to effective and favourable regulation that enables investment', Rabilloud said, adding that this package of regulations is generally overlooked in other contexts.
Rabilloud also expressed his appreciation on how "the government is focussed on creating champions in the area of energy, in order to be able to 'play' together with international investors', he added.
He also recognised that Mozambique has the necessary resources in a context where energy security is the name of the global "game'. For this reason, Mozambique is currently presenting itself as a real national, regional and global player on the world energy map.
For his part, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Carlos Zacarias, said that Mozambique could, through its natural and renewable energy resources, position itself to ensure the energy transition of southern African countries, as well as promoting green industrialisation.
"As a country, we want to consolidate our strategic role on the regional and global map as a producer and exporter of clean energy that guarantees the environmental, social and economic sustainability of Mozambique, the region and the world', he said.
Meanwhile, in Paris, the TotalEnergies Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pouyanne, went much further, declaring that the company aims to restart work on its LNG project by the end of this year.
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According to the Zitamar news agency, Pouyanne showed a group of analysts a presentation, under which the project, known simply as "Mozambique LNG' will become operational by 2028.
The key determinant in the calculations by TotalEnergies is clearly the security situation in and around Palma.
"The situation has clearly improved because the governmental forces, support by other countries, particularly Rwanda, have taken back control'. Pouyanne said. The company had undertaken audits "which are satisfactory and the objective is to restart the project before year-end'.
He added that "some of the contractors would like to benefit from the situation to increase their costs. We disagree, so we have some negotiations, including re-tendering some of the packages in order to control the costs of the project. But we will have clarity on that in the coming months'.
