- Saipem has agreed to restart a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique for TotalEnergies in July.
- The project is the first onshore development of an LNG plant in Mozambique.
Saipem has agreed to restart a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique for TotalEnergies in July, the chief executive of the Italian energy services group said on Tuesday. The project, the first onshore development of an LNG plant in the African country, was frozen in 2021 due to security issues. The contract has a value of 3.5 billion euros ($3.72 billion) for the Italian group.
Saipem CEO Alessandro Puliti said, “We expect to gradually restart the (Mozambique) project, according to the information received by our clients, starting from July this year. We do not have direct visibility on the report on human rights. Still, we agreed with Total about restarting in July… this implies that our client is confident to solve potential pending issues by that date”. Puliti said that Saipem did not have direct information about the human rights and security situation of the Cabo Delgato Province, where the project will be located.
Earlier this month TotalEnergies mandated Jean-Christophe Rufin, an expert in humanitarian action and human rights, to carry out an independent mission to assess the humanitarian situation in the province before deciding on a restart of operations. On Tuesday, Total told Reuters it would wait for a human rights assessment commissioned by Rufin before announcing any project restart. The French company added it did not yet have a date for when it would receive the report after an initial estimate of end-February.