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Mozambique: ExxonMobil final LNG project decision only at end of 2025
10:03 CAT | 04 May 2024
File photo: Lusa
US oil company ExxonMobil plans to make a final decision on the natural gas extraction project in northern Mozambique only at the end of next year, announced the country’s general director, Arne Gibbs.
“We are optimistic, we are moving forward, but we recognise that there are still challenges,” he said in statements quoted by the Bloomberg financial information agency, in which he pointed out that the Final Investment Decision would only be made at the end of next year, fulfilling the forecast made in July to start in 2025.
Gibbs’ statements come in the same week that Mozambique’s President said that funding is no reason to delay the implementation of the natural gas megaprojects, led by France’s TotalEnergies and the US’s ExxonMobil.
“It’s fundamental [to go ahead with the projects] because it can’t be a problem of a financial decision, now, associated with the terrorist situation. This project already existed, it’s old. That means there was clarity in its execution. It can’t run aground for this reason, let’s look for others,” criticised Filipe Nyusi at the opening of the 10th edition of the Mozambique Mining and Energy Conference and Exhibition in Maputo on Thursday morning.
READ: ExxonMobil pushing forward with Mozambique LNG project, official says
Specifically, he called on the concessionaires of Area 1, led by TotalEnergies, to “accelerate the development of the resumption of onshore projects” in view of the “gradual promising stability” on the Afungi peninsula, in the district of Palma, Cabo Delgado, and that in Area 4, onshore, led by ExxonMobil, “the process leading to the Final Investment Decision should be accelerated, with the necessary adjustments to the Development Plan approved in 2018”.
In the same speech at the conference, the head of state said that the “delay” in realising this type of project “causes problems”, because the “expectations of the countries are enormous” and “people think that part of their problem may be solved”.
In statements quoted by Bloomberg, Arne Gibbs confirmed that the oil company has completed the preliminary engineering and design work for the 18 million tonne per year project in the Rovuma basin and that the group of engineers and designers will begin the project “in the coming months”.
On the insurgency that halted construction in March 2021, Gibbs commented: “There have been significant improvements in the safety situation since we started in 2021, and we know there is still more work to be done.”
Exxon’s project in Cabo Delegado – a northern province affected for more than six years by terrorist attacks – was expected to produce 15.2 million tonnes per year, but the company is currently forecasting annual production of 18 million tonnes.
The Rovuma LNG project will be “the largest liquefied natural gas project in Africa, and could be the largest project in African history,” added Arne Gibbs.
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves of the Rovuma basin, classified among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant to export it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium) and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely after an armed attack on Palma in March 2021, when the French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe.
The other is the still unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium, onshore).
Source: Lusa
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