Communication - Presse
TotalEnergies wants to expand airport to receive large aircraft in northern Mozambique
French multinational TotalEnergies intends to expand the Afungi airdrome in the area where it will build a liquefied natural gas plant in northern Mozambique, into an infrastructure capable of receiving Boeing and other large planes, a company official said today.
“Today, the airport’s runway is 1,700 meters long and there is a plan to expand it to 2,300 meters, so that planes such as Boeing 737s can land,” said Thierry Lacave, director at the TotalEnergies facilities in Afungi, Cabo Delgado province, in statements after a meeting with the Minister of Transport and Communications of Mozambique, Mateus Magala.
Lavave said that the increase in the capacity of that infrastructure aims to expand the response capacity to air traffic , which is being boosted by natural gas projects in the area.
The TotalEnergies consortium is currently committed to strengthening security conditions in the perimeter where the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant will be built, he said
The multinational suspended its project in Cabo Delgado following an armed attack near the project facilities, in March 2021, in the context of armed violence that has been carried out by insurgents in the province.
The president of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, recently announced that the company planned to relaunch the project before the end of the year.
The Minister of Transport and Communications of Mozambique stated today that if it were up to the Mozambican executive, the TotalEnergies project would have been resumed “yesterday”, ensuring that security has been restored in Cabo Delgado, given the progress in the fight against armed groups.
“There is optimism and a sense of urgency” for the resumption of activities in the French multinational consortium’s gas project, said Mateus Magala.
Cabo Delgado he added, will be one of the main drivers of economic growth and the creation of economic and social prosperity in Mozambique, given the “vast resources at its disposal”.
The province has been facing armed insurgency for six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
On the ground in Cabo Delgado, the Mozambican Armed Defence Forces have been fighting terrorism – in attacks that have been taking place since October 2017 and which are hampering the progress of natural gas production projects in the region – since July 2021, with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The conflict in northern Mozambique has already displaced a million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, while the Mozambican President this week admitted to “more than 2,000 fatalities.
