Mozambique to audit TotalEnergies’ cost claims over LNG project in Cabo Delgado

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Mozambique to audit TotalEnergies’ cost claims over LNG project in Cabo Delgado

5:28 CAT | 18 Nov 2025

File photo: TotalEnergies / Mozambique LNG Project

The Mozambican government today approved a resolution providing for an audit, which it must validate, of the costs allegedly incurred by TotalEnergies due to the halt of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) megaproject in Cabo Delgado, amounting to US$4.5 billion.

“The Council of Ministers approved the resolution on the resumption of the Golfinho-Atum LNG project. The resolution requires the Government to conduct and validate an audit of any costs the concessionaire may have incurred during the period of ‘force majeure’,” announced government spokesperson Inocêncio Impissa following today’s cabinet meeting in Maputo.

“It establishes a deadline for the concessionaire to submit its action plan and obtain the necessary approvals for the immediate resumption and implementation of the project, and guarantees that the Government will oversee the project’s progress across various cross-cutting areas,” the spokesperson added.

The Mozambican President stated on 12 November that he expected negotiations with TotalEnergies to be concluded within a week. The company has proposed a 10-year extension to the gas megaproject concession in Cabo Delgado to compensate for the losses it claims to have incurred since the suspension of activities in 2021 due to terrorist attacks.

“If all goes well, within a week at the latest, we will conclude discussions with the project led by Total, so that we can proceed with the resumption, after the public announcement lifting the ‘force majeure’. Official notification has already been issued,” said President Daniel Chapo, speaking in Maputo on 12 November.

The matter concerns conditions proposed by TotalEnergies, in a letter delivered to the Mozambican Presidency on 24 October, communicating the decision to lift the ‘force majeure’ clause of the project, four years after suspension due to terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, but also pointing out the need for compensation for losses during the stoppage.

The extension of the concession proposed by TotalEnergies, leader of the consortium of Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin, northern Mozambique, would serve, according to the letter accessed by Lusa, to compensate for losses of 4.5 billion dollars (3.87 billion euros) for the period of suspension of the megaproject.

In the letter signed by the president of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, notifying the decision to lift the ‘force majeure’ clause, the request is justified to “partially compensate the economic impact” of the stoppage due to terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, acknowledging that security conditions for resumption are now met.

“The Concessionaire respectfully requires the Government to grant an extension of the term of the Golfinho-Atum Development and Production Period under the EPCC [Exploration and Production Concession Contract] by a duration of 10 years,” it reads.

It adds that “as a final step before fully relaunching the project,” the Mozambique LNG Concessionaire “looks forward to receiving the approval by the Government of Mozambique of the revised project cost and schedule.”

“This revised budget’s approval shall cover the incremental costs incurred by the project due to the ‘Force Majeure,’ which amount to 4.5 billion dollars,” it further states.

The megaproject involved is worth 20 billion dollars (17 billion euros). The concessionaire now indicates that the first delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the first line to be installed in Afungi, Cabo Delgado, has been postponed from July 2024, as originally planned, to the “first half of 2029.”

Mozambique has three approved megaprojects for the development and exploitation of LNG reserves in the Rovuma Basin, ranked among the largest in the world, off the coast of Cabo Delgado, including this one by TotalEnergies (13 mtpa), in the resumption phase following suspension due to terrorist attacks in the region, and another by ExxonMobil (18 mtpa), worth 30 billion dollars (26.1 billion euros), awaiting final investment decision, both on the Afungi peninsula.

Also included is the Italian Eni project, which has been producing about seven mtpa since 2022 from the Coral South floating platform, which will be duplicated from 2028 with the second Coral North platform, in a 7.2 billion euro (6.2 billion pounds) investment.

Source: Lusa