TOTALENERGIES INTRODUCES DRASTIC SECURITY MEASURES ON MOZAMBIQUE LNG
Before lifting the force majeure on Mozambique LNG, the French major wants to ensure the safety of all staff in the zone.
09 June 2025
Source: Africa Intelligence
TotalEnergies’ Mozambique CEO, Maxime Rabilloud, invited around a hundred people, including the company’s contractors and subcontractors, to a particularly important videoconference meeting on 27 May. The goal was to discuss the future security conditions introduced by the oil giant at the Afungi site, where two Mozambique LNG trains (13.1m tons) are to be built.
The 120 people in attendance, first and foremost the representatives of CCS JV, the joint venture chosen to lead the project including Saipem, McDermott International, and Chiyoda, as well as subcontractors such as WBHO and Gabriel Couto, learned, among other things, that the LNG Park area on the Afungi peninsula would be totally inaccessible by land, all day every day, both for deliveries and for the circulation of staff. Provisions, construction materials and site workers will all arrive by sea or air – Afungi has a landing strip, built by Gabriel Couto.
After a 20-minute presentation by Rabilloud, accompanied by some of his senior staff, the meeting ended without the participants being able to ask any questions.
CONTRACTORS UNDER SURVEILLANCE
The securing of the site, which is entirely enclosed and monitored by CCTV, is the only way TotalEnergies sees of lifting the force majeure by the middle of this year, as announced by the company’s CEO Patrick Pouyanné in early May. Security in the province of Cabo Delgado has deteriorated since 2017, with the activities of self-styled Islamist groups leading to the declaration of a state of emergency in April 2021 and the provisional halt to the project which was officially launched in 2019 by TotalEnergies’ former operator, Anadarko. Doubts about the long-term presence of the 3,500 Rwandan army troops deployed in the zone since July 2021 mean the French oil firm has no choice but to take drastic measures.
To ensure the strict application of the new security regime outlined by Rabilloud during the 27 May meeting, a security audit will be conducted on all contractors and sub-contractors.