The final contractual arrangements between the government and TotalEnergies could be concluded this month, paving the way for ExxonMobil to sign its Final Investment Decision (FID) in the middle of next year.

The announcement was made today in Maputo by the President of the Republic, Daniel Chapo, during his opening speech at the CASP 2025 Public-Private Business Dialogue Conference.

“We're working on getting the Rovuma projects back on track. If all goes well, in a week or so at the most, we'll conclude negotiations with the project led by Total, so that we can resume, after the public announcement of the lifting of the Force Majeure,” he said.

According to the Head of State, the ongoing dialog with the Mozambique LNG project's partners is essentially aimed at “closing the dots” that will ensure benefits for the Mozambican people and investors.

On the occasion, the President of the Republic recalled that the effective return of TotalEnergies to the field will ensure that Exxon Mobil moves forward with DFI for its project in Cabo Delgado.

“In our talks in Houston it became clear that if Total's project is resumed, they will also start working with us so that by the middle of next year, June or July at the latest, Exxon's Investment Decision can be made,” he said. Mentioning the Eni project, he noted that the province of Cabo Delgado has four projects, valued at 50 billion dollars.

France's TotalEnergies is leading the Area 1 project in the Rovuma basin, valued at 20.5 billion dollars. Development has been suspended since April 2021, due to terrorist attacks near its infrastructure in Afungi. It recently lifted the Force Majeure clause. In a letter to Daniel Chapo, the oil company's CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, said that the suspension had caused losses of 4.5 billion dollars. He asked the government for adjustments to cover the costs, and demanded an extension of the contract for another ten years.

ExxonMobil, Italy's Eni and ADNOC - Empresa Nacional de Petróleo de Abu Dhabi are partners in the offshore natural gas exploration project in Area 4, in the Rovuma basin, north of Cabo Delgado.

Area 4 is also home to the Coral Sul FNLG projects, which are already in production, and Coral Norte, which is under development. The partners are Eni, ExxonMobil, CNPC, Galp, KOGAS and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH).

In order to make the most of these foreign investments, the Head of State urged the national private sector to work on local content.

Chapo warned, however, that the revenue that the state absorbs from the natural gas megaprojects will be invested in traditional sectors of economic development such as infrastructure, agriculture and tourism.