Maputo, June 22, 2025 (Lusa) - Mozambique's President Daniel Chapo said on Sunday that TotalEnergies should lift the “force majeure” clause, triggered in 2021 due to terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, so that the natural gas megaproject can finally move forward.
“The most important thing right now with TotalEnergies is the lifting of ‘force majeure’. The lifting of ‘force majeure’ lets any development plan [for the gas project] achieve meaningful progress,” said the head of state in an interview with several media outlets in Maputo, including the Lusa news agency.
“If the ‘force majeure’ clause is lifted,” he said, “the project will go ahead,” which anticipates an annual production capacity of 13.12 million tonnes of LNG.
Daniel Chapo said that the government is “working” with the French multinational to lift this clause, which allowed TotalEnergies, for security reasons due to terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, where the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exploration was being implemented, to suspend the project in 2021.
He added that according to information from TotalEnergies, of the $15 billion (€13 billion) in financing still needed for the project - out of a total of $20 billion (€17.3 billion) - $13 billion (€11.3 billion) is guaranteed, recalling the previous announcement by US Exim Bank, the United States’ export bank, which in March confirmed its support of $4.7 billion (€4 billion), with European banks expected to announce their decision on the remainder soon.
“The promise was that the most important thing was the amount that was missing [from the United States] (...) even if, at this time, the other banks choose not to move forward, the partners, internally, can actually make the contributions and move forward with the project,” explained Chapo.
“At the level of European banks, we are working to see. This is the first solution. We are moving forward, and if we continue, we will complete the amount. The project has everything it needs to move forward financially. TotalEnergies has said that, if external funding does not materialise, the partners themselves can provide the remaining amount, because it is small compared to what is needed,” he insisted.
However, he reiterated that “the focus must be on lifting the ‘force majeure’”.
“TotalEnergies invoked ‘force majeure’, not the government. We must make this point clear. TotalEnergies invoked ‘force majeure’. TotalEnergies, which invoked ‘force majeure’, has the responsibility to lift it. However, we also have our responsibility, our part, because everything has to do with internal security issues.” Therefore, each of us can do our part,” he said.
French multinational TotalEnergies has stated that it plans to resume the mega LNG project in northern Mozambique this summer, with financing needs virtually secured and the security situation in the area reportedly stable.
“The goal is to relaunch this project somewhere by the middle of the year,” TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said recently.
TotalEnergies, leader of the Area 1 consortium, is building a plant in Afungi, near Palma, for the production and export of LNG.
Pouyanné acknowledged that four years later, the area is “completely safe and secure.”
Since October 2017, gas-rich Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion that has left thousands dead and caused a humanitarian crisis with more than a million people displaced.
TotalEnergies holds a 26.5% stake in this project, primarily targeting customers in Asia, alongside Mozambican partners and Japan’s Mitsui (20%).
Mozambique has three approved development projects for the exploration of natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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