Maputo, Dec. 2, 2025 (Lusa) - TotalEnergies clarified on Tuesday that the mega gas project in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, would continue without funding from the UK or the Netherlands, with the remaining financiers ensuring that portion, equivalent to 10% of the total.
"The Mozambique LNG project partners have unanimously agreed to provide additional capital to replace the contributions from UKEF [United Kingdom] and Atradius [Netherlands], representing a total of approximately 10% of external financing," reads a statement the French oil company released on Tuesday.
At issue is the departure of the two export credit agencies, UK Export Finance (UKEF) and Atradius, from the Netherlands, from the consortium financing the mega gas project, which was suspended from April 2021 to October 2025 due to terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado.
Both were among a group of around 30 creditors who, in 2020, agreed with the Mozambique LNG consortium on financing of $15.4 billion (€13.2 billion). Totalenergies explained that "due to the prolonged period" of “force majeure”, which suspended the project, it was necessary to negotiate a revision of the financing agreement.
"Following the lifting of “force majeure” [in October] by Mozambique LNG and the consortium's willingness to resume the project, the Mozambique LNG partners decided to proceed without the participation of UKEF and Atradius, as these two agencies had not yet reconfirmed their commitment," says TotalEnergies, confirming that the remaining financiers (90% of the total) confirmed their "commitment".
The French company also said it had taken note of the reports commissioned by the Dutch government from two consultancies "on the human rights and security situation", even though Atradius "is no longer part of the financing".
"TotalEnergies regrets that both external consultancies did not travel to Mozambique to conduct on-site investigations, but instead produced a report based mainly on information gathered by third parties," it said, again denying human rights abuses.
On Monday, the UK Government informed the British Parliament that it was withdrawing its funding for the Mozambique LNG project, which would amount to $1.15 billion (€988 million), by UKEF, confirmed in 2020, a year before the terrorist attacks in Palma that led TotalEnergies to invoke “force majeure” and to suspend the project, currently valued at $20 billion (€17.2 billion).
It claimed, in particular, that "British funding for this project will not contribute to our country's interests".
Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Saturday dismissed as false accusations of human rights violations in TotalEnergies' gas megaproject.
"When misinformation and manipulation of public opinion began to appear at the national and international level regarding respect for human rights in Cabo Delgado, the first thing we did was to send the National Human Rights Commission [CNDH] to Cabo Delgado (...) and it did not find the issues that the newspapers and some who claim to be international investigators are raising," said Chapo.
He said that there is no evidence of the allegations of human rights violations, which led the European legal organisation ECCHR to file a criminal complaint in France on 17 November against TotalEnergies for "complicity in war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance" of people in that mega gas project.
The ECCHR also accused the multinational of "directly financing and materially supporting the Joint Task Force, composed of the Mozambican armed forces, which, between July and September 2021, is said to have detained, tortured and murdered dozens of civilians at TotalEnergies' gas facilities."
The complaint was filed with the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) and "focuses on the so-called “container massacre” at the company's facilities" in Cabo Delgado. Politico initially reported these allegations in September 2024.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
