'TotalEnergies delays massacre-linked gas project in Mozambique’ 23 January 2025

A delay in restarting work on a TotalEnergies' liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Mozambique means the facility will not be operational by 2029 as the company’s chief executive Patrick Pouyanné had hoped. The setback — first noted by the Financial Times and corroborated by Reuters — follows political instability in Mozambique and the revelation by POLITICO that Mozambican soldiers operating out of TotalEnergies' natural gas plant abducted, raped and killed dozens of civilians. Pouyanné had earlier said the company needed to secure final funding for the project before it could lift force majeure, a contractual clause under which it suspended construction following a 2021 Islamist attack on the Cabo Delgado region where the plant is located.

"The priority is to restore peace and security in Cabo Delgado and the lifting of force majeure," a Total spokesperson told Reuters. Contacted by POLITICO, TotalEnergies acknowledged the delay without giving a new timetable or commenting further. The $20 billion project, the largest private investment in Africa at the time of its announcement, is under pressure from European lawmakers and NGOs who have denounced the human rights violations associated with the project.

"While TotalEnergies seems to be putting on hold its threat of an imminent relaunch of the project, we are not forgetting the severe impacts that its project continues to generate in Mozambique,” said Lorette Philippot, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth France, describing any relaunch as "unacceptable." Earlier this week, Friends of the Earth France joined more than 100 other NGOs to call on private banks and public lending institutions to stop financing the project. The restarting of operations is also dependent on a reapproval of a $4.7 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank.