Mozambique LNG project financing almost complete – TotalEnergies

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Mozambique LNG project financing almost complete – TotalEnergies

2:29 CAT | 19 Mar 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

TotalEnergies has said that the $15 billion in financing to restart the natural gas exploration megaproject in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, is almost closed, following the go-ahead from US bank Exim

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

Rabilloud was reacting to the reconfirmation, on March 13, by the administration of the Export-Import Bank of the United States of America (Exim Bank) of US$4.7 billion in financing for the project.

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

TotalEnergies’ Liquefied Natural Gas (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 ‘force majeure’ 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 is supported in that area by the Rwandan armed forces.

Maxime Rabilloud recalled that the overall financing for the project, with several international banks and credit agencies, is US$15 billion. 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.

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on 5 February that he was expecting approval of Exim Bank financing for its natural gas project in Mozambique, admitting a further delay to 2029-2030 for the start of LNG production, stating that “a few more months” had been lost recently.

The TotalEnergies executive had said, in a previous meeting with investors, that meeting the previous objective implied “restarting the project in 2024”, which did not happen.

At the end of January, Mozambican president Daniel Chapo said that he had received from Patrick Pouyanne a guarantee of TotalEnergies’ “commitment” to restarting the project in Cabo Delgado.

Pouyanne acknowledged that “there are undeniable improvements in security, but it is not perfect”, referring to the situation in Cabo Delgado, for more than seven years the scene of attacks by terrorist groups associated with the Islamic State.

This gas exploitation project was halted in 2021 after a ‘jihadist’ attack in which dozens of civilians were killed.

TotalEnergies has a 26.5% stake in the project – which is mainly intended to supply customers in Asia – along with Mozambican partners and the Japanese company Mitsui (20%).

Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves of the Rovuma basin off the coast of Cabo Delgado, classified as among the largest in the world.

Source: Lusa