Construction on a stalled $20 billion gas project by TotalEnergies in Mozambique is edging closer to restarting, four years after it was suspended due to a bloody jihadist insurgency.
The French oil giant has said it hopes to re-ignite the project this summer and chief executive Patrick Pouyanne is expected in the capital Maputo this month, a source close to the company told AFP.
For the Mozambique LNG project — of which Total holds 26.5 per cent — to resume, it will be up to shareholders to lift the force majeure they invoked after a 2021 attack.
Here are some key facts about the project Pouyanne said he hoped would begin production in 2029.
The 2010 discovery of vast offshore natural gas deposits in the northern Cabo Delgado province could position Mozambique as a major player in the global gas market.
It had raised hopes of becoming an African version of wealthy Qatar, in a nation where more than 70 per cent of the population lives in poverty.
Civil society and environmental groups led by local NGO Justica Ambiental have decried the ‘gas rush’ as a ‘climate bomb’, in Africa’s most vulnerable country to climate change according to the 2023 World Risk Index.
The African Development Bank estimated in 2018 the reserves at more than 5,000 billion cubic meters of gas — enough to supply the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy for nearly 20 years.
The first exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) began in November 2022, from the Coral Sul offshore plant run by Italy’s energy company Eni which only has a quarter of the production capacity of the TotalEnergies site.
A third project with even greater capacity, led by US giant ExxonMobil, should receive its final investment decision next year — the last stage before implementation — according to Mozambique’s President.
‘The country’s vast gas reserves could make Mozambique a top 10 global producer, responsible for 20 per cent of Africa’s output by 2040,’ according to a 2024 report by financial experts Deloitte.
TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil’s projects require onshore facilities to liquefy the gas so it can be transported by sea, making them more vulnerable to the spiralling insurgency staged by Islamic State-linked militants.
The jihadist insurgency has ravaged northern Mozambique since October 2017.
The group often referred to as ‘Al-Shabaab’ by locals and authorities — despite no known link to the Somali jihadist group — seeks to impose Sharia law in Cabo Delgado, a neglected outpost that has become fertile ground for radical ideology.
In a major incident in March 2021, the insurgents attacked the port town of Palma, a few kilometres from the TotalEnergies site, sending thousands of people fleeing into the surrounding forest.
Conflict tracker ACLED estimated more than 800 people were killed in the attack.
French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation against TotalEnergies after allegations that it failed to protect its subcontractors in the area, some of whom were among the dead.
An investigation by Politico also accused government soldiers tasked with protecting the gas site of deadly abuses against villagers fleeing the unrest, leading Mozambique’s public prosecutor and human rights commission to open investigations.
TotalEnergies stated it had ‘asked in November 2024 the Mozambican authorities to open a formal investigation’.
At least 48,000 people have been displaced by the violence since the start of 2025, according to the United Nations.
ACLED estimates the conflict has claimed 6,000 lives since 2017.
After Russia’s Wagner Group failed to contain the long-running insurgency, Rwandan troops were deployed to the area in 2021.
The European Union renewed funding for the operation this year despite Rwanda’s involvement in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Brussels is seeking to diversify its gas supplies to limit its dependence on Russia.
The relaunch of the project has also been delayed by months of protests following the disputed October elections.
Mozambique’s economic growth is expected to ‘accelerate sharply to reach 10 per cent in 2028 and 2029 as the first onshore project begins production’, according to the International Monetary Fund — up from an estimated 2.5 per cent in 2025.
But TotalEnergies’ project should only create 5,000 local jobs at the peak of construction, according to the Mozambique LNG consortium.
Benefits for the local population will heavily depend on the sovereign wealth fund set up by the government, in a country marred by corruption and debt scandals.
