Hotel manager Fernando Cuna waited four years for TotalEnergies to resume construction of its $20 billion liquefied natural gas project on Mozambique’s coast, hoping it would bring clients to the nearby town of Palma.
In a province where the average household income is less than $1 per day, locals like Cuna invested in hotels, catering and transport to benefit from the French oil major’s 13 million ton per year LNG project, only to see it suspended in 2021 due to Islamist militant attacks that killed dozens in Palma.
In October, TotalEnergies lifted force majeure on the project, one of several set to catapult the world’s eighth-poorest nation into the top 10 gas exporters by 2040.
But to secure its facilities, located on the Afungi peninsula about 20 kilometres from Palma, it has moved to what it calls “containment mode” – operating from a giant compound accessible only by sea or air.
As activity at the gas site ramped up in recent months, locals said Palma’s fragile economy collapsed as people realised they would not reap the hoped-for benefits.
Workers are flown in to the plant, while supplies arrive mostly by ship.
This approach has cut off local communities and could fan resentment toward the Western developers and the government, local businessmen, civil society leaders, and security analysts said, worsening an insurgency that began in 2017.
“Palma has become a desert,” said Cuna, 59, by phone. Until recently some workers and suppliers were based in the former fishing town with palm-fringed beaches, he said, but now they’ve moved inside the compound.
His hotel is empty, and moto-taxi drivers wait around with no rides.
“Frustration is growing.”
–Reuters–
