Total sends top security team to Mozambique
Unless security situation is improved, Total says it could put the construction of the Afungi LNG plant on hold.
By Marc Allen, Maritime Direct UK.
French major, Total, has warned the Maputo government that unless it receives guarantees of an improvement in the security situation in Cabo Delgado province, it will halt the construction of its new LNG plant at Afungi, reports Dryad Global this morning.
Attacks in late December by jihadist insurgents left the Mozambican armed forces in disarray, and according to Dryad, former gendarmerie general Denis Favier, and Africa director Nicolas Terraz, met officials in Maputo last week to discuss the situation. Several incidents in the immediate vicinity of the plant forced Total to evacuate the facility and if no progress is made in securing the area, the project could be jeopardised.
Approximately 700 military personnel are stationed at Afungi, but their rules of engagement prevent them from combatting threats outside the perimeter they guard. Mozambican ministries involved are keen for Total to employ private security teams to guard the installation, but the company flatly refuses to raise a private force and says it is concerned that arms might fall into the wrong hands and inflame an already volatile situation.
The instability in the region means that other major players, ExxonMobil and ENI will be reticent to invest in their own planned projects and ENI has already postponed a 15m tonne project at the site.
