Mozambique LNG Project resumption will boost business environment – Petromoc Marine

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Mozambique LNG Project resumption will boost business environment – Petromoc Marine

3:27 CAT | 06 Oct 2025

FILE - Afungi, Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique [File photo: TotalEnergies]

The fuel company Petromoc Marine believes that the resumption of the Mozambique LNG Project, located in Palma district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, will boost the country’s business environment.

The LNG project – which is headed the French oil and gas company, Total Energies – was forced to halt operations in 2021 following a major terrorist attack against Palma town. However, now the company is preparing to resume the project, budgeted at 20 billion dollars, as the security conditions have improved.

Created in 2016, Petromoc Marine is a joint venture between the international trading company Augusta Energy and Mozambique’s publicly-owned fuel company, Petromoc. Since then, it has played a strategic role in the country’s largest gas exploration and production projects, including the Coral Sul FLNG (Floating Liquefied Natural Gas) platform of the Italian energy company. ENI, to which it supplies fuel for all phases of the project, from geophysical studies to the current extraction phase.

The company supplies marine diesel to drilling ships, platforms, logistics support vessels (PSVs), and even generators used in gas export operations.

According to Nuno Grade, the CEO of Petromoc Marine, interviewed by AIM, the fuel supply is crucial for all phases of the country’s ongoing natural gas megaprojects, from initial exploration to production.

“We are looking forward to the imminent resumption of the TotalEnergies project, because Mozambique needs scale to become a global gas player. It is essential to have multiple projects running simultaneously. Fuel is vital to keep all operations running. In the initial construction phase, consumption is much higher, but even now it remains essential”, he said.

Petromoc Marine also participated in the first phase of construction of the Afungi logistics base in Palma, before TotalEnergies suspended construction in 2021 due to instability in Cabo Delgado.

“Each new advance in gas projects translates into expansion opportunities. If there are 10 projects in operation, we could have not just one, but six vessels dedicated to supplying Mozambique”, he said.

Paradoxically, Petromoc Marine’s expectations, and the imminent resumption of TotalEnergies’ activities in Palma, are generating apprehension among local business owners and communities, who fear losing employment and business opportunities due to the company’s new operating strategy.

According to complaints from local business owners Total Energies intends to adopt a “lockdown” model, in which material supplies will be shipped exclusively by sea and the movement of people will be restricted to air transport. This approach, according to local operators, closes the door to the integration of the town of Palma into the supply of services and products to the megaproject.

Currently, some small businesses in Palma provide catering, transport, and maintenance services linked to providers operating in Afungi. However, if TotalEnergies moves forward with the announced regime, dozens of jobs will be at risk.

“Our project would directly employ 150 people. We currently have 70. If Total operates like this, we will have to close, leaving not only these workers unemployed but also at least five local businesses inactive”, a source said.

Source: AIM