TOTAL Sets up a $200Milion Foundation for Community Development in Moza’s Gas Rich District

TOTALEnergies has received the report of the human rights advocate it commissioned to evaluate the conflict challenges and living conditions of the communities around its project in Mozambique’s gas rich Cabo Delgado Province.

The French major has elected, based on the report by Jean-Christophe Rufin, to set up a well-heeled foundation with a detailed, comprehensive work programme.

The 800-word press release focuses on improvements in community engagement and makes scant reference to the fatal attacks by Islamic insurgents which drove TOTAL and its contractors away from the LNG plant construction site in April 2021 and led to the commissioning of Mr. Rufin’s investigation.

TOTAL says that itself and its partners in the Mozambique LNG Ltd have approved the following action plan:

– Mozambique LNG shall establish a dedicated Foundation for the implementation a socio-economic development programme covering the whole territory of the Cabo Degaldo province, as part of a consistent and sustainable development strategy. The action of the Foundation will be guided by an objective of shared prosperity in the province, without waiting for the revenues expected during the production phase of the project. In order to sustain its action, this Foundation will be provided with a multi-annual budget of $200Million. The Foundation will be headed by a recognized figure in the field of local economic development and overseen by a Board of Directors including representatives of Mozambique LNG and of the civil society. Its actions will be conducted in a coordinated manner with the activities carried out by the other development stakeholders present in the Cabo Delgado province. This Foundation will act under the name of “Pamoja Tunaweza” (“together we can” in Kiswahili).

– Regarding the populations affected by the development of the Afungi industrial site, the following actions will be implemented:

• The relocation and compensation process will be audited to identify the corrective actions to be implemented.
• The resettlement of the Quitupo village residents will be finalized without delay. To that end, Mozambique LNG will complete the construction of the new Quitunda village houses by the end of the Summer 2023. All Quitunda houses shall be equipped with access to solar energy.
• The inventories of the assets of the populations affected by the project and subject to compensation (constructions, land plots and plantations) will be updated, to ensure that compensations fully reflect the current situation of these assets.
• The payment of compensations to families affected by the project will be accelerated. A taskforce shall be set up together with the Mozambican authorities to enable all families to obtain, by the end of the summer in 2023, the legal documents required to receive the payments due to them.
• Access of local communities to agricultural areas will be facilitated and enlarged. Given that the Mozambique LNG industrial facilities do not occupy the entire land area granted by the Government of Mozambique, a surface of about 2,000 hectares located in periphery of the site will be made available to local communities for agricultural activities.
• Individual transportation means will be provided to the fishermen resettled in Quitunda, to facilitate their access to the various fishing areas.

The report notes that the security situation in the north of Cabo Delgado has evolved positively in 2022 and recommends reviewing the framework of relations between Mozambique LNG and the Mozambican Defense Forces in light of this situation. Mozambique LNG has started a dialogue with the Mozambican authorities to this end.

Finally, a follow-up mission to monitor the implementation of this action plan will be carried out by Jean-Christophe Rufin at the request of Mozambique LNG project partners.