TotalEnergies Restarts Mozambique’s $20bn Gas Project

MOZAMBIQUE · ENERGY

TotalEnergies has restarted its roughly $20 billion Mozambique LNG project, reviving one of Africa’s largest energy investments four years after a deadly insurgency forced it to stop. First gas is now expected in 2029, putting Mozambique on course to become a major exporter to a world still hungry for cleaner-burning fuel.

Pemba, capital of Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, home to the Mozambique LNG project. (Photo: VOA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

What the Mozambique LNG project is

Mozambique LNG is a giant plant being built on the Afungi peninsula, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. It will chill offshore natural gas into liquid form so it can be shipped around the world.

Led by France’s TotalEnergies, it is one of the biggest foreign investments ever made in Africa. The gas comes from vast fields discovered off Mozambique’s coast.

The fields hold some of the largest gas reserves found this century. Turning them into exports has been the country’s great economic hope.

Once running, it is designed to ship liquefied gas to buyers across Asia and Europe. That would place Mozambique among a small club of major exporters.

Why it stalled

In 2021, TotalEnergies declared force majeure and pulled out after Islamist insurgents attacked the nearby town of Palma. The violence across Cabo Delgado killed many and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Troops from Rwanda and southern African nations later helped restore a measure of security. That opened the door to a return.

The attack on Palma in 2021 shocked investors and underlined the risks of building in a conflict zone. For four years the half-finished site sat idle.

The restart

The project’s owners agreed to lift the force majeure in late 2025, and a full restart was announced in early 2026 by TotalEnergies chief Patrick Pouyanne alongside President Daniel Chapo. Work has resumed both onshore and offshore.

The project is now about 40% complete, with a budget of $20.5 billion that includes roughly $4.5 billion spent during the four-year pause. First gas is targeted for 2029.

The government has pledged to support the project and address the consequences of the long pause. Both sides are eager to make up lost time.

Engineering and the purchase of major equipment were largely completed before the halt. That head start should speed the path to first gas.

Why outsiders should care

The world still wants gas, prized as a cleaner-burning bridge between coal and renewables. A revived Mozambique could become a meaningful new supplier to Europe and Asia.

For investors, the restart is a test of whether frontier energy projects can survive conflict and delay. Few bets in Africa are bigger.

Europe’s scramble for gas after cutting Russian supplies has reshaped the market. New African producers stand to benefit from that shift.

Gas prices remain volatile, and timing matters for the economics. A project a decade in the making must still land in a favourable market.

A Lusophone link

Mozambique is part of the Portuguese-speaking world, a thread that ties it to Brazil and Portugal. For Rio Times readers, that makes its fortunes more than a distant story.

The restart also leaned on regional cooperation, including the Rwandan forces that helped secure the area. Energy and security have become inseparable here.

Brazilian and Portuguese firms have long done business in Mozambique. The country’s gas story is, in part, a Lusophone one.

That shared language smooths trade, finance and diplomacy across the Atlantic. It gives the project a familiar face for our readers.

The controversy

Not everyone welcomes the revival. Campaigners argue that the security and social costs of the project fall heavily on local communities, many still displaced.

Mozambique’s challenge will be turning gas wealth into broad benefit rather than a new source of grievance. The history of resource booms in Africa is a cautionary one.

Rights groups have questioned the conduct of forces guarding the area. Balancing security with the rights of residents will be a lasting test.

What to watch

The key variables are security in Cabo Delgado and the 2029 timeline. A nearby project led by ExxonMobil is also advancing.

How Mozambique manages the coming flood of gas revenue will shape whether the gamble pays off for its people. The world will be watching the meters.

Any renewed violence could halt the project again, as it did before. Security, more than geology, may decide its fate.

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