Mozambique projects adjust to life in a war zone

The war in Cabo Delgado is intensifying, but work on Total’s LNG project continues

Hundreds if not thousands of troops have been seen in recent days heading for Palma, the district in far north east Mozambique that is home to the huge Total- and Exxon-led projects to liquefy gas from offshore fields in the Rovuma basin. So far, the area including the town of Palma and the Afungi peninsula, where Total is developing its Area 1 Mozambique LNG project after FID last year, have remained untouched by the insurgency. But it has claimed 1,500 lives in the wider province of Cabo Delgado since it began in October 2017 and the project is not unaffected. The war has made it impossible, during the last couple of months, to access the project site by the main road heading up from the p