Undeterred: Energy Firms Pursue Mozambique Projects Despite Massacre Report

U.S. and international energy companies are still eyeing projects in Mozambique despite reports of a massacre of scores of civilians by government troops and a raging Islamist insurgency that threatens the largest private investment in Africa.

A door-to-door inquiry into the 2021 massacre identified at least 97 people who were slaughtered by Mozambican forces. After POLITICO reported on the deaths, European lawmakers and human rights activists called for investigations into the killings and the actions of the French energy giant TotalEnergies, which denies any culpability.

TotalEnergies had engaged government security forces to guard the site in the midst of clashes between the government and an Islamist insurgent group.

Now, despite further unrest following a disputed election in Mozambique — and allegations that internationally funded energy projects have become a focus of insurgent anger — U.S. and international companies are continuing to explore ways to tap into the southern African nation’s vast natural resources.

U.S.-based Exxon Mobil, which has plans for its own gas project in Mozambique, told POLITICO it expects to make a final investment decision on its $30 billion Rovuma LNG project in 2026, which, if approved, is scheduled to ship its first cargo of the fuel by 2030.

"We will continue to work in close collaboration with the Government of Mozambique and expect the security situation to stabilize and be managed through comprehensive, multi-layered security that builds on the lessons learned by [Exxon] and many others over the years,” an Exxon spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Australian-owned firm of Twigg Exploration and Mining, which received a $150 million loan from the federal U.S. Development Finance Corp., said it was moving ahead with its graphite mining project.

And the TotalEnergies Project itself — which relies on U.S. equipment and services — remains active. The U.S. Export-Import Bank, which helps fund overseas projects that involve U.S. companies, is still reviewing TotalEnergies’s application for financing for its $20 billion Mozambique LNG project, an agency spokesperson told POLITICO.

The decision will likely be left to the incoming Trump administration on whether to provide billions of dollars in project financing.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth is pressuring the U.K. government to drop support for TotalEnergies’ Mozambique gas project, though the French company has said it had “no knowledge of the alleged events described” nor “any information indicating that such events took place.”

Human-rights and environmental advocates have called on EXIM, as the import-export bank is known, to reject the project.

The TotalEnergies gas project follows a “failed development model” that promotes U.S. and European companies to extract fossil fuels while delivering few benefits to African citizens, said Collin Rees, U.S. program manager with environmental group Oil Change International. He said EXIM should reject a project that “risks becoming an absolutely catastrophic human rights disaster,” further destabilizing the region while producing more planet-heating fossil fuels.

“I think what you're seeing in this case is working hand-in-hand with a future Trump administration, essentially paving the way for this disastrous project to go forward,” Rees said.

EXIM announced in 2019 it would provide $5 billion in funding for the TotalEnergies project that would chill the Mozambique gas into a liquid form that can be exported by ship. It cut that figure to $4.7 billion before TotalEnergies suspended development under a force majeure declaration in 2021 after a previous ISIS massacre in March 2021 in the adjacent town of Palma, in which the jihadis killed 1,353 people and abducted another 209. Other Western-backed projects were also called force majeure until the security situation in the country improved.

“EXIM continues to conduct due diligence on the project operator’s plans to resume construction and development activities,” an agency spokesperson said via email. “As per its regular procedures, EXIM will review and evaluate any proposed changes to the terms of its approved financing of the Mozambique LNG project.” 

EXIM is performing due diligence on the TotalEnergies project but there is no timetable for it to return to the bank’s board for a vote, a senior official at the agency said, and no disbursements have been made.

The agency will have to establish that the situation in Mozambique is safe enough for investment. That it has yet to put consideration of the gas project on its official agenda to finalize the promised funding is likely a reflection that the four-person board is not comfortable making a decision yet.

EXIM President and Board Chair Reta Jo Lewis is expected to resign her position with the change in administrations. But that would still leave the agency’s executive board with two Democrats on the board, one of whom joined the remaining Republican to back the decision in 2019 to fund the project. It is unclear where the board members stand now given the latest security concerns and news of the alleged massacre at the TotalEnergies site.

For its part, the Mozambique Defense Ministry has denied that its forces acted brutally or inappropriately in protecting the site, saying in a press release last fall that armed forces in the area had been “exclusively focused on combatting terrorist acts, protecting populations and their assets, as well as ensuring security in areas threatened by terrorists.”

Even as POLITICO revealed details of the 2021 massacre allegations, security in Mozambique worsened. More than 100 people have died in protests against the government and intermittent general strikes after a disputed election in October.

The State Department late last month lamented "escalating violence against civilians" in Mozambique, raising worries about deteriorating security in the southeastern African nation.

The worsening security situation comes after Mozambique and TotalEnergies expressed concerns about the status of EXIM financing, according to a U.S. government summary statement of a Feb. 5 meeting between State and Energy department officials and Mozambique Ambassador Alfredo Fabião Nuvunga that was reviewed by POLITICO.

Nuvunga sought the meeting with State after a TotalEnergies representative urged him to get “reassurance” from the Biden administration on whether a pause on U.S. domestic LNG export license approvals would delay the EXIM financing for its planned facility, according to the meeting summary. State Department officials at the meeting said the pause would not affect that financing and “offered to engage EXIM on whether a letter of comfort could be sent to Total.”

TotalEnergies declined to discuss the financing for its project. A State Department spokesperson did not confirm or deny details of the meeting.

While the federal government continues to review the project, U.S. private investments in energy projects in Mozambique are expected to resume.

Exxon leased the Mozambique Area 4 gas concession in December 2017 to tap into what are believed to be some of the world’s largest gas deposits, cooling the gas into LNG and shipping it to countries across the globe. But Mozambique’s security later deteriorated to an extent that surprised Exxon officials, who had made office space in Maputo its local headquarters, said a person familiar with the plans.

The bloodshed and unrest were major factors in Exxon putting off a final decision to invest in the Rovuma LNG project, said the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal company discussions.

Exxon was not aware of the alleged massacre at the TotalEnergies site when it occurred in 2021, the person said.

Both TotalEnergies’ and Exxon’s projects are located on the Afungi Peninsula in the north of the country near the border with Tanzania.