TotalEnergies is leading the consortium for the liquefied natural gas exploration project in Area 4 of the Rovuma basin in Cabo Delgado province. The project is valued at more than 20 billion dollars.

A terrorist attack in the town of Palma, on the outskirts of the area of operation, in March 2021, forced the French multinational to declare a Force Majeure. It suspended activities and withdrew staff.

Hopes for a resumption of activities were revived in 2022 as the situation of terrorist attacks was brought under control by the national defense forces and their allies.

Until further notice, uncertainties over safety were the main obstacle to TotalEnergies returning to Palma once and for all. However, as the weekly revealed this week SavannahThere is a financial issue that may be holding back TotalEnergies' progress.

In its publication on Friday (09), the newspaper reports that the consortium led by the French company has already mobilized a loan of 15.5 billion dollars from various export credit institutions. This group includes US-EXIM (EXIM Bank), which has yet to disburse around five billion dollars of the project's total value.

In fact, "disbursement" from the US agency "has not yet been guaranteed, one of the main reasons for the delays in restarting the project," he writes.

All funding needs to be reconfirmed due to the events related to the attack on Palma in March 2021.

In the case of US-EXIM, the disbursement has already been approved by the board, but it doesn't have the final signatures due to the electoral period in the United States and the environmental issues surrounding the exploitation of fossil fuels.

A favorable decision by US-EXIM could make other financiers skeptical, he says. (Image: DR)