Mozambique: Cabo Delgado LNG project to support 16,400 jobs in US – EXIM Bank

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Mozambique: Cabo Delgado LNG project to support 16,400 jobs in US – EXIM Bank

1:23 CAT | 21 Mar 2025

FILE - The statement highlights that this is the "largest deal in EXIM’s now 91-year history". [ File photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Tony Webster]

The resumption of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in the province of Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, will support 16,400 jobs at 68 companies in the US, according to EXIM Bank, the official export credit agency of the US.

According to a statement, the board of directors of the state-owned EXMI Bank, which supports US exports and imports, said that the “second amendment” to the loan granted in 2019 to the project, of up to US%4.7 billion (€4.3 billion), was approved “unanimously” on 13 March.

The financing aims to “support the export of U.S. goods and services for the development and construction ” of the integrated LNG project, a an investment that TotalEnergies is building on the Afungi peninsula but suspended since 2021 due to terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado.

“The financing for the project located on the Afungi Peninsula in northern Mozambique will support the engineering, procurement, and construction of the onshore LNG plant, related facilities, and offshore activities. The transaction, which had been on a four-year pause, will support an estimated 16,400 good-paying American jobs which support workers and families at more than 68 companies across 14 states including Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, New Jersey, California, Nevada, Colorado and the District of Columbia. Follow-on states are expected to support thousands of additional jobs across the United States,” the EXIM Bank statement reads.

The statement highlights that this is the “largest deal in EXIM’s now 91-year history”.

READ: Unabridged: EXIM Board of Directors votes to proceed with $4.7 billion LNG equipment and services transaction after four-year delay

In addition to being repaid the US$4.7 billion, the US EXIM Bank expects to receive US$600 million (€554 million) in interest.

Quoted in the document, the bank’s vice-president, Jim Burrows, stresses that “this 2019 transaction, which is the largest deal in Exim’s now 91-year history, finally can move forward so that thousands of American workers can export their “Made in the USA” equipment and services, something that instead would have gone to Chinese and Russian manufacturers but for President Trump’s leadership in reauthorizing Exim”.

The President of Mozambique, Daniel Chapo, thanked his US counterpart on Thursday for approving the financing: “Your support plays a crucial role in advancing this crucial project. The Mozambique LNG project has the potential to generate 13 million tons of LNG per year and create 40,000 new jobs, including approximately 20,000 in the US”.

“This support allows the participation of North American companies in Mozambique and contributes to global energy security, within the framework of a solid partnership between our two countries,” the letter continues.

TotalEnergies said this week that, with Exim’s approval, financing to restart the LNG project in Cabo Delgado is almost complete.

“We are still in a force majeure situation, the project has not restarted yet, but one of the critical steps was the Exim Bank decision, which reconfirmed its support for the overall financing of the project. This is a very important financing, it is a critical step,” said TotalEnergies’ director for Mozambique, Maxime Rabilloud.

TotalEnergies, leader of the Area 1 consortium, is currently developing a plant for the production and export of natural gas in Afungi, near Palma.

TotalEnergies’ LNG project, one of three under development in Mozambique, has been suspended since 2021, due to the terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, which led the oil company to invoke the force majeure clause and withdraw all personnel from the construction site.

This forced the consortium of financing banks to reconfirm the previously approved financing, with the resumption of the project also conditional on the reestablishment of security, which in that area has the support of the Rwandan armed forces.

Maxime Rabilloud explained that in addition to the US Exim Bank, the Asian banks in the financing consortium had also reconfirmed financing of around US$5 billion (€4.5 billion), with only the reconfirmation of financing from European banks pending.

Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed rebellion that has cost thousands of lives and caused a humanitarian crisis, with more than a million people displaced since October, 2017.

Source: Lusa