An enormous gas project worth billions of dollars has been put on hold in Mozambique since an insurgents attack there in 2021, and this week Patrick Pouyanne, the CEO of French energy company TotalEnergies, is set to visit.
Pouyanne will travel to the country in southern Africa to discuss the circumstances around a potential resumption of operations in the unruly Cabo Delgado area.
According to the sources, he will likely speak with President Filipe Nyusi and cabinet ministers. TotalEnergies claimed that it was unable to comment on trip plans.
Huge natural gas reserves, the largest found south of the Sahara, were found in the northern region with a majority of Muslims in 2010, and Mozambique has great hopes for them.
According to estimations, Mozambique may rank among the top 10 gas exporters in the world if all the resources are used.
The plan, however, is now in doubt because of the insurgency that militants with ties to the Islamic State have launched in the area.
After a devastating raid on the seaside town of Palma in 2021, TotalEnergies suspended its $20 billion LNG project.
Following the raid, southern African nations like Rwanda and Mozambique sent forces to help Mozambique restore control of much of Cabo Delgado.
But in some areas of the province, sporadic and low-level terrorist strikes continue. The arrival of Pouyanne is likely to raise hopes that TotalEnergies will soon begin operations in the underdeveloped area.
The first export shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the region departed for Europe in November. However, Coral Sul, a floating plant run by the Italian corporation Eni, is where the LNG was produced.
While Total’s project is on land, the deep-water program has so far been spared from the threat of attack. More than 4,500 people have died in the fighting in northern Mozambique, 2,000 of them civilians, and almost a million people have been displaced.