ExxonMobil’s Mozambique LNG project “on track” for approval in 2025

(Bloomberg) – The ExxonMobil Corp.-led Rovuma liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project in Mozambique is on track to gain final approval in 2025, according to a company executive.

“A lot depends on the security situation, which has been very well managed,” said Peter Clarke, Senior Vice President of Upstream Oil and Gas, at a conference in Vancouver Tuesday. “The government is doing a good job and hopefully we’ll see more positive news in that respect as we go through the end of the year,” Clarke said.

This is the first time Exxon has laid out a clear timeline for the project since reviving plans to build the onshore plant, which was stalled in 2020 as an Islamic State-linked insurgency heightened security concerns. An approval by 2025 would put the project on track to start up by the end of the decade. Originally conceived as a plant producing 15.2 million tons a year, Exxon now envisions the plant producing as much as 18 million tons.

Exxon is looking to nearly double its LNG portfolio, which currently stands at 24 million tons a year globally, by 2030, either through new projects, joint ventures or third-party offtake agreements, said Clarke.

The Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea has advanced into the front-end engineering and design phase, according to Clarke. A final investment decision could be made for the 6 million tons a year plant by early 2024, with start up by 2028, he said.

Clarke said that the major would be “selectively looking” at further U.S. LNG projects for potential expansion of its LNG supply portfolio.