Mozambique’s government may have counter-arguments to the updated budget and schedule proposed by TotalEnergies for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project it is leading in the Southern African country, President Daniel Chapo said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The French oil major told Mozambique’s president last week that the Mozambique LNG consortium estimated its costs had risen by $4.5 billion in the four years the project has been on hold because of an Islamist militant attack in 2021.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies and its partners want the development and production period extended by 10 years as partial compensation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the proposal to extend the period of the contract, Chapo said: “We will have to sit down and perceive in detail the foundations for this extension, there may also be counter-arguments from the government.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mozambique will conduct a similar exercise on the higher costs proposed by TotalEnergies, and “on our side, there will also be, without any doubt, counter-arguments,” Chapo said, according to a recording of remarks he made at a press conference that was shared with Reuters by Chapo’s Spokesperson.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne told investors on Thursday that the Mozambique LNG consortium would be able to restart its project quickly, with a budget at $20.5 billion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The LNG project is 40% complete, although insurgent attacks have shown little sign of abating despite Mozambique signing a new security pact with Rwanda, whose military has helped secure the area where the plant is being developed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Exxon Mobil is developing a separate project nearby.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14226,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-14225","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mozambique's government may have counter-arguments to the updated budget and schedule proposed by TotalEnergies","published_date":"2025-10-31 08:16:46","news_description":"Mozambique's government may have counter-arguments to the updated budget and schedule proposed by TotalEnergies","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18982,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14225\/revisions\/18982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}