French oil company TotalEnergies TTEF.PA said on Thursday (26) that it was unaware of the torture and killings of civilians that allegedly took place in 2021 at the site of its future LNG plant in Mozambique, in response to a press report.

A publication by Reuters, quoting the American online newspaper "Political" said in a report published on Thursday that Mozambican soldiers operating out of the site, which is still unfinished, rounded up between 180 and 250 local men, locked them in shipping containers and then tortured and killed most of them between July and September 2021.

Mozambique's Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations in the Político report, which quoted survivors and an unnamed gas plant worker. Político said in its report that the Ministry of Defense and the Presidency of the Republic did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

TotalEnergies, which operates the project with a 26.5% stake, said in a statement: "Before being contacted by the author of this article, TotalEnergies had never received any information about the alleged events described."

The consortium partners include Japan's Mitsui (20%), Mozambican state-owned ENH (15%), Thailand's PTTEP (8.5%) and Indian companies ONGC Videsh (16%), Bharat Petroleum (10%) and Oil India Ltd (4%).

Mozambique LNG has no knowledge of the alleged events (...) and has never received any information indicating the occurrence of such facts," says a statement on behalf of the consortium, provided by TotalEnergies.

TotalEnergies was leading the development of the 20 billion dollar gas export project in a bid to turn the country into a major LNG producer to rival Australia, Qatar, Russia and the United States.

In March 2021, Islamic attacks in the vicinity led TotalEnergies to declare force majeure and vacate the site, called Afungi. The project has been frozen ever since.

"The last remaining Mozambique LNG personnel were evacuated on April 2, 2021 and, on that date, the Afungi site was handed over to the Mozambican public security forces," the consortium statement said. "No Mozambique LNG personnel returned ... until November 2021."

The Politician reported that some contractors have returned to the site, with some trying unsuccessfully to offer food and water to the captives.

In its statement, Mozambique LNG said it had worked through NGOs to provide food, aid and humanitarian support to local communities affected by the March 2021 Islamist attack.

He said that in more than 1,200 phone calls with local community leaders after the evacuation, "none of those calls mentioned the alleged events described in (the Politician's) story" involving government forces at the gas plant.

On the other hand, TotalEnergies is the subject of a complaint and a criminal investigation in Paris for failing to ensure the safety of all its subcontractors during the initial Islamist attack and the evacuation. TotalEnergies has rejected these allegations as inaccurate.

Mozambique continues to be plagued by jihadist attacks, but in July TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said that he hoped to chart a path to restart Mozambique LNG after the country holds presidential elections in October.

(Photo DR)