The president of Exxon Mobil's drilling and extraction division will meet with the Mozambican government between Thursday and Friday in Maputo, after the US company assured the continuity of its presence in the African country.

A source from the Mozambican executive advanced that Liam Mallon will meet with leaders of the mineral resources and energy sector, with the possibility of being received by the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi.

Liam Mallon leads Exxon Mobil Upstream Oil & Gas Company and has previously led other areas of the oil company, such as the Africa division or project development.

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said earlier that the company remains committed to the natural gas exploration project in Mozambique, despite the slipping deadlines for the final investment decision.

"I wouldn't put much faith in the market rumors you hear," Woods said during a conference call with analysts, quoted by the Bloomberg financial news agency, following a Wall Street Journal report that pointed to a reassessment of the project by oil company management due to environmental and financial return concerns.

"There are a lot of people talking and most of them don't have a good understanding of the discussions we are having," he added, still admitting that there has been a "slippage" in the established deadlines, namely regarding the final investment decision (DFI) of the onshore liquefaction project in Afungi - the DFI being the moment from which the bet is practically irreversible.

Exxon Mobil is part of the Area 4 consortium in the Rovuma basin, whose floating platform will start producing liquefied natural gas as of 2022, with a forecast of three million tons per year (mtpa) corresponding to 10% of the total production expected if the other two onshore liquefaction projects are added (12.88 mtpa of Totalenergies' Area 1 and 15.2 mtpa of Area 4, which brings Exxon and ENI together).

Lusa Agency