Minister of Economy and Finance of Mozambique, Max Tonela, has stressed the need to reaffirm financing commitments so that TotalEnergies can resume its natural gas production project in Cabo Delgado province later this year.
“Export credit agencies are instrumental in this process, because they must ensure approval in time for the project to restart,” said Tonela at a meeting with financing agencies involved in supporting the French multinational’s project in the Rovuma basin, in Cabo Delgado.
“TotalEnergies is taking steps to resume its project before the end of this year,” he emphasised.
Tonela said that the project was a milestone in the history of Mozambique, Africa and the world, because “it will contribute [to] fair energy security during an unprecedented period of global crisis.”
TotalEnergies suspended its project in Cabo Delgado following an armed attack near the project’s facilities in March 2021, in the context of the armed violence that had become widespread in the province.
The CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, recently announced that the company was hoping to relaunch the project before the end of this year.
The province of Cabo Delgado, in the north of Mozambique, has been plagued by an armed insurgency for six years, with responsibility for some attacks claimed by a local affiliate of the extremist group Islamic State.
On the ground fighting terrorism are Mozambique’s own armed forces, since July 2021 backed up by contingents from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The conflict in northern Mozambique has displaced one million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, while Mozambique’s president recently acknowledged that there had been more than 2,000 deaths.