Mozambique LNG resumes soon
Bharat Petroleum believes Force Majeure at the Mozambique LNG project, where it holds 10%, will be lifted by January or February 2025.
Operator TotalEnergies suspended work in April 2021 following attacks by Islamic State militants. But on October 28 (2024), BPCL director finance VRK Gupta told analysts at a post-financial results call that "we are expecting hopefully by January, February (2025), they (TotalEnergies) may lift Force Majeure and the project can progress further."
Answering a question by Yogesh Patil from Dolat Capital, Gupta said that based on "whatever information we got from the main operator (Total), the ground level work has started, but officially they have not lifted the Force Majeure; but otherwise, the contractors have started coming back to the field and the security situation has improved a lot compared to previous months." Gupta added that as of September 30 (2024), BPCL had invested around $2.15bn (Rs18,000cr) in the project.
During the next five years, BPCL expects to invest another Rs20,000cr ($2.4bn). In August 2024, BPCL chairman G Krishnakumar told shareholders that work on the project would resume within the year (2024).
"The initial two-train LNG Project in Area 1 (Mozambique), which is the first step towards unlocking the world-class gas resources of approximately 63 trillion in which your company (BPCL) holds a 10% stake, is set to resume operations this year," reportedly said Krishnakumar. Three Indian companies hold a total of 30% of the Mozambique LNG project: OVL (16%), BPRL Ventures Mozambique BV (10%), and Oil India (4%).
Total E&P Mozambique Area 1 Limitada, the operator, holds 26.5%.