Exxon Mobil Awards Contract For Africa’s Biggest-Ever Private Project

* Plant would be biggest-ever private investment in Africa
* Project may cost as much as $33 billion; output seen in 2025
Exxon Mobil Corp. awarded a JGC Corp.-led group a contract to develop its Mozambique liquefied natural gas project, which is set to be the biggest ever private investment in Africa.

JGC will be joined by Fluor Corp. and TechnipFMC Plc to develop the Rovuma LNG project, Exxon Senior Vice President for LNG Peter Clarke said in a speech Tuesday in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
The project will cost between $27 billion and $33 billion, according to March estimates by Johannesburg-based Standard Bank Group Ltd.
A final investment decision on the Rovuma project is expected next year, and production will probably start in 2025, Clarke said.
Rovuma’s planned output is 15.2 million tons of LNG per year, higher than a nearby project that Total SA is developing with a capacity of 12.9 million tons. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, is looking to the projects to uplift its $15 billion economy.
Exxon’s announcement comes before the southeast African nation holds a vote next week in which President Filipe Nyusi is seeking re-election. Nyusi, whose campaign will be boosted by progress on gas investments, has struggled to quell an insurgency that’s rocked the gas-rich region over the past two years, threatening the projects.