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African Energy Chamber: Mozambique LNG Project Could Be Transformational for Mozambique - If Western Environmentalists Don't Interfere

DGAP-News: African Energy Chamber / Key word(s): Miscellaneous African Energy Chamber: Mozambique LNG Project Could Be Transformational for Mozambique - If Western Environmentalists Don't Interfere 21.09.2020 / 12:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Mozambique LNG Project Could Be Transformational for Mozambique - If Western Environmentalists Don't Interfere By NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber

When Anadarko Petroleum Corp. confirmed last year it would be constructing a $20 billion liquified natural gas (LNG) plant in Mozambique, this was major news. Mozambique's first onshore LNG plant would be creating tens of thousands of jobs - and contributing to sustainable, long-term economic growth that would impact millions of people.

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Two additional LNG projects have been announced since then: the $4.7 billion Coral FLNG Project by ENI and ExxonMobil, and the $30 billion Rovuma LNG Project by ExxonMobil, ENI, and the China National Petroleum Corporation. While these two have been postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the original LNG Mozambique project has been moving forward.

French oil major Total acquired the project and finalized project funding in July, even in the face of recent terror attacks in northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, where Total's LNG plant will be constructed.

That's why it's so disheartening to learn that a UK-based environmental group is pursuing actions that could jeopardize the project's timely progression, all in the name of preventing climate change. Friends of the Earth has said it will initiate a legal challenge against the UK's decision to provide $1 billion in funding for the Mozambique LNG project.

Never mind the project's importance to everyday Africans. Never mind its potential to grow and diversify the economy. Never mind that projects like this are just what Mozambique needs to address its energy poverty, or that the Mozambique government has invested considerable time and resources into making this LNG project possible.