Cabo Delgado: Workers’ deaths unrelated to gas project, Total says

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Cabo Delgado: Workers’ deaths unrelated to gas project, Total says

3:24 CAT | 07 Jul 2020

File photo: DW

The oil company heading the natural gas megaproject in northern Mozambique says there was no venture activity linked to the circumstances in which eight subcontractor employees were murdered.

“The situation was not related to any activity carried out by the Mozambique LNG project,” a response released this Monday (06.07) to questions posed by the Lusa news agency reads, adding that the attack “took place approximately 60 kilometres from the project’s construction site”.

The multinational also clarified that the visit by to Mozambique on Friday by Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s president of exploration and production, “had no relation to this security situation”.

Attack

The company Fenix Construction announced in a statement on Sunday (05.07) that one of its vehicles was attacked “by five insurgents” on July 27, four kilometres from Mocímboa da Praia, a town that on the same day was under attack by armed groups active in the region.

Of the 14 occupants of the vehicle, eight were killed, three fled into the surrounding bush and survived, while three others remain missing.

A private security company hired by Fenix managed to rescue and transport to Palma the bodies of the eight men killed and “under instructions from local Palma authorities, they were buried on Friday,” the company said.

Safe conditions

Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s exploration and production president, visited Mozambique on Friday and met the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Max Tonela.

After the meeting, Breuillac told journalists that “the [Mozambican] government is working very hard to create, as far as possible, the best conditions for the secure execution” of the project. “Security is the Government’s responsibility, and we are confident in the work that is being done,” he said.

The incursions by armed groups in Cabo Delgado in the last two and a half years, while not targeting the gas mega project site itself, have already caused the death at least 700 people and a humanitarian crisis affecting about 211,000 residents.

The source of the violence remains a matter of debate, but since June 2019, several attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State jihadi group.

Total leads the consortium that will exploit the gas reserves in Area 1 of the Rovuma basin from 2024.

Fenix Construction services’ press release on the 27 June ambush against one of its vehicles in the area of Mocímboa da Praia

The company is subcontracted by an oil major https://t.co/QEfSvqxu88

— Gustavo Plácido (@Gustavoplacid0) July 6, 2020