The Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy promised this Thursday that by the end of this year all the conditions will be in place for the resumption of Total’s natural gas project, suspended by the war in Cabo Delgado.
From our point of view, we hope that this year all the conditions will be created to guarantee and convince the concessionaires to resume activities,” Carlos Zacarias declared, speaking to journalists, on the sidelines of the seventh coordinating council of the Ministry of Mineral Resources. and Energy.
That official pointed out that the security situation in the province of Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, which is home to natural gas exploration projects, “changed radically” against the armed groups who have been protagonists of the violence since October 2017 in the region.
Naturally, the resumption of activities will depend on the specific perception of each concessionaire regarding security conditions”, emphasized Carlos Zacarias.
TotalEnergies, whose consortium will invest more than 20,000 million dollars in natural gas exploration in northern Mozambique, has suspended the development of the project in the region, due to a rebel attack in 2021close to the development infrastructure, in the district of Palma, province of Cabo Delgado.
Palma was the target of one of the most notorious attacks by the rebels who have terrorized the province of Cabo Delgado for almost five years, when on March 24, 2021, the insurgents invaded the district headquarters, causing dozens of deaths and injuries, as just as the thousands of people flee.
Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.
There are around of 800,000 internally displaced due to the conflictaccording to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and some 4,000 dead, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with the support of Rwanda, to which the Southern African Development Community (SADC) later joined, has allowed the recovery of areas where there was a presence of rebels, but their flight has provoked new attacks. . in other districts it is used as a gateway or shelter.
Source: Observadora
