By Shem Oirere, Africa Correspondent
(P&GJ) – Apparent unrelenting pressure from local and international human and environmental lobby groups on financiers to stop backing either ongoing or approved liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects in Africa could hinder meaningful financial breakthrough for the ambitious buildout plan in 2025 and beyond, thus frustrating the continent’s projections of increased LNG export volumes in the short to medium term.
Increasing opposition to development of the LNG export infrastructure has been more pronounced in Mozambique — a country with an estimated 2,840 Bcm of natural gas reserves, where several civil society groups, both local and international, have formed a coalition to push back on additional financial backing for the huge LNG export projects.
Although it is not yet known what the impact of a President Donald Trump-era would be on global fight against emissions, financiers elsewhere — especially those from outside Africa — are getting jittery over the perception that they are fueling increasing global carbon emissions by backing the LNG export projects, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mozambique, which become an LNG exporter in 2022, with projections of increasing the export volumes by 2030, has recently seen intense lobbying by nearly 126 local and international civil society groups. Their aim is to have some 31 financial institutions — involved in the 2020 mobilization of $14.9 billion to finance the controversial Mozambique LNG project — to rethink their position on proceeding with the undertaking in the face of mounting allegations of human rights violations at the project site.
“The coalition specifically asks for financial institutions to support the call for an urgent, independent international investigation into an alleged massacre of civilians, reportedly committed near TotalEnergies’ Afungi premises between July and September 2021 by public security forces claiming to be in charge of protecting the gas site,” the groups’ statement said in January 2025.
“The coalition emphasizes the need for the investigation to be conducted by an international or regional intergovernmental human rights mechanism — such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights,” they added.
Furthermore, the groups urged the financiers “to withdraw their commitments of support for the project and withhold support if the force majeure is lifted — a legal step required for the project to resume — until all facts and responsibilities are investigated, and the results of such an investigation made public.”
Although 14 of the 31 financial institutions responded to the civil society coalition’s petition by mid-January, mostly by acknowledging receipt or expressing concern on the claims of rights violations raised in the letter, “none so far indicated support for an independent international investigation.”
“None of the 31 financial institutions have publicly spoken out about the alleged massacre and other reported human rights violations in connection with the Mozambique LNG project,” the coalition said.
An earlier global LNG outlook by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) did actually say the Mozambique 13-mtpa LNG project promoted by TotalEnergies has stalled since 2021, “due to public opposition to the project and unstable political climate in Cabo Delgado province.”
Although construction of the $20 billion project was expected back online in 2023, IEEFA said the plan is still on hold “amid a surge of violence in the province and resistance from international lenders.”
However, in an earlier rejoinder to the initial reports of rights violations at the Afungi project site, TotalEnergies, through its subsidiary Mozambique LNG, denied the rights abuse claims.
In a September 2024 response to media reports of alleged killings at the LNG project site, the company said it “has no knowledge of the alleged events” and that it “never received any information indicating that such events took place.”
The civil society groups now claim gas development in Mozambique “has been shown to be a catalyst for making increased funds and resources available to a government that has been inflicting violence on citizens.”
“Neither the Mozambican government nor TotalEnergies can be entrusted to solely conduct credible and objective investigations into alleged violations that they may have links to,” they said.
The challenge of uncertainty and stiff resistance both at the local and international front has also delayed the 18-mtpa Rovuma LNG project, which is considered key to developing a series of large gas fields discovered in the Rovuma Basin, offshore Mozambique. The fields were discovered by Italian energy firm Eni SpA and partners ExxonMobil, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and TotalEnergies.
However, it is the global push to cut-back on financing natural gas development projects, as part of the international community’s drive to achieve their net zero plans, that could hit Africa’s LNG projects more.
A 2024 letter, sent by members of Congress, the Senate and parliaments from across the globe to former President Joe Biden and then U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, said “every dollar invested in unnecessary, harmful, and expensive LNG infrastructure costs us double — first by our failure to invest in secure, abundant, and cheap renewable energies, and second, by locking in higher greenhouse gas emissions, with attendant future climate damage.”
The letter, with signatories from more than 20 countries — including Africa’s Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Sudan — said “the African LNG market parallels the United States in prioritizing foreign market interests over local needs amidst declining demand.”
“Divesting from the volatile and unsustainable LNG sector should be a primary focus for genuine environmental and social progress,” they said.
However, a recent “Gas for Africa” report by the International Gas Union (IGU), in partnership with Hawilti Ltd. — a Pan-African investment research agency — noted “natural gas provides an immediate emissions reductions benefit when it replaces coal or oil fuel, both in greenhouse gases and especially in air pollutants. For this reason, several African countries, including Ghana, South Africa, and Senegal, are planning to switch to gas to lower their emissions and improve air quality.”
But in the same report, both IGU and Hawilti have noted there has been a substantial response by financiers to gas projects in the “Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis.” The statement is signed by 534 financial institutions and their representatives, managing US$29 trillion in assets.
The report also said there has been an impressive reception of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero — an initiative that brings together financial institutions and other financial services sector participants that are willing and ready to support the objectives of mobilizing finance and addressing the constraints project developers face in their endeavor to decarbonize.
“Both initiatives sent a strong message about accelerating phase out of fossil fuels and increased scrutiny for any hydrocarbon-related investment,” the report added.
“The growing withdrawal of investments has had a concrete impact on Africa, [with] some of the continent’s biggest financiers, including the African Development Bank, finding it increasingly difficult to support gas project developments that require loan syndication and foreign partners,” it said.
Africa’s own financiers, as noted by the report, “cannot finance major gas projects on their own.”
Nevertheless, Africa has recently tried to create an energy-focused financing institution to step in place of drying capital flows from international lenders that have embraced the call for enforcing stricter decarbonization measures.
Pan-African supranational multilateral financial institution, the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) has partnered with African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO), an organization of African countries producing petroleum, to establish a financing institution focusing on Africa’s energy projects.
The proposed Africa Energy Bank (AEB), seen by some as an option to accelerate universal access to energy in Africa, is expected to have multiple partners: government agencies, national oil companies, international oil companies, project developers, private equity funds and other development finance institutions.
“The new Africa Energy Bank is a welcome development for potential new gas projects in sub-Saharan Africa, [as] it is likely to engage in co-financing partnerships with international financial institutions and probably attract new bank investors from the Middle East and Asia,” said Oxford Energy’s Mostefa Ouki in a previous projection.
Elsewhere, the IGU recommends embracing of futureproofing of gas projects “to help ensure global capital remains available for gas projects in Africa.”
For instance, the Union suggests, as a necessity, that each gas project be assessed for compatibility with the Paris Agreement stipulations, “especially when seeking to attract foreign capital.”
“New gas infrastructure can and should be designed in a way to enable the further scaling of these low-carbon and zero-carbon gases and ultimately help meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement,” it said.
African countries, the IGU said, “must demonstrate the role of gas projects today in meeting their next net zero targets, which for many African countries are beyond 2050.”
As for the opposition to LNG projects on account of human rights violations and environmental degradation, international LNG project developers appear to be investing more in their corporate responsibility programs, as a way of endearing themselves not only to their own shareholders but also to potential project financiers.
For instance, Eni announced in January that together with its partner in the Rovuma LNG project in offshore Area 4 of northern Mozambique, they will support “the socio-economic development of communities in the districts of Pemba, Metuge and Mecufi in Cabo Delgado Province.”
Other initiatives that Eni and partners are taking to endear themselves to the communities surrounding the gas project include setting up stalls for selling frozen products, groceries, clothing and footwear, while providing kits that include tools such as rakes, hoes, wheelbarrows and fertilizers.
At the Area 4 project, Exxon is pursuing construction and operation of the onshore liquefaction and related facilities, leaving the component of the Coral floating LNG and upstream operations to Eni.
“The implementation of these initiatives is part of the long-lasting strategy of Eni Rovuma Basin, [which is] aimed at promoting social cohesion and inclusive development of both internally displaced people (IDPs) and communities in Cabo Delgado Province, while fostering long-term stability in the region, in line with the United Nations SDGs,” Eni said in a statement.
Overall, Africa’s LNG production increased to 41 MMtpa in 2023, a development attributed partly to the instability in Europe’s gas supply, arising from the Russia/Ukraine crisis. Consequently, African producers such as Cameroon, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria anticipate a surge in demand. LNG shipments out of the continent, however, declined by 10% in 2023 compared to 2019, probably due to a surge in local consumption and more natural gas being exported via pipelines. Market reports indicate several new LNG projects have reached final investment decision (FID) or are under construction across Africa, with a combined capacity of 14 MMtpa.
These include two floating LNG facilities: one in the Republic of Congo by Eni SpA and another off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal promoted by BP.
In Nigeria, a new LNG train — the seventh so far — is in the works, as is the expansion of existing six trains that have been plagued by operational problems.
Other LNG projects have been proposed or underway in Mauritania/Senegal, Gabon and Tanzania.
That said, international LNG export project developers in Africa such as BP, TotalEnergies, Perenco, Eni, Shell, Equinor and ExxonMobil are mulling best strategies to not only appease hostile communities around their project locations but also enforce strict decarbonization practices. The African continent faces a monumental challenge in proving to its people that new LNG buildouts would not exacerbate human rights abuse or degrade the already volatile environment but instead, effectively support economic growth with benefits cascading to ordinary citizens.