Mozambique establishes two Interministerial Coordination Committees for Areas 1 and 4 Rovuma Basin LNG projects

Mechanism

The 6th Ordinary Session of the Mozambique Council of Ministers on 3 March 2026 approved two separate resolutions, each creating an Interministerial Coordination Committee (Comissão Interministerial de Coordenação do Plano de Desenvolvimento):

• Area 1 Committee — covers the Mozambique LNG project, a 13.1 mtpa onshore LNG facility at Afungi Peninsula in Cabo Delgado, operated by TotalEnergies (26.5%) with partners Mitsui (20%), ONGC Videsh (10%), ENH (15%), and others. TotalEnergies declared force majeure in April 2021 following jihadist attacks near the construction site; force majeure was lifted in January 2026 following the improvement in the security situation and resumption of works.

• Area 4 Committee — covers the Rovuma LNG project led by ExxonMobil (with Eni operating the Coral South FLNG that achieved first LNG in 2022 and Coral Norte FLNG relaunched January 2026). ExxonMobil has indicated FID for the onshore Rovuma LNG facility is expected H2 2026 (as of May 2026 presidential statement).

Both committees are chaired by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME) and include the ministers responsible for oil/hydrocarbons, finance, economy, transport and logistics, labour, and land and environment. Technical participants include INP (Instituto Nacional de Petróleo — the sector regulator), the Autoridade Tributária (AT — Tax Authority), and the Banco de Moçambique (central bank). The mandate per the Cabinet spokesperson is to "monitor and ensure the rapid and coordinated assessment of amendments to the development plans" for each project.

Context and IPTM placement

This instrument represents the third layer of Mozambique's 2025-2026 LNG governance architecture now on the register:

1. DM 55/2024 (local-content obligations, July 2024) — upstream regulatory layer binding concessionaires to employment, training, procurement, and national-company-association obligations. 2. November 2025 ENH/CFM/EDM/HCB infrastructure concession — midstream/infrastructure rights layer awarding 30-year LNG terminal and ROMPCO pipeline concession to a state-controlled consortium. 3. Lei dos Petróleos 25% domestic market quota revision (May 2026) — upstream quota instrument mandating domestic gas offtake from producers. 4. This action (March 2026) — executive-branch project-governance layer creating whole-of-government coordination architecture for plan-amendment assessment across both operating blocks.

The establishment of the committees in March 2026 is the operational implementation of the executive-branch coordination signalled in the January 2026 TotalEnergies force-majeure lift: it converts the political commitment to "facilitate and accelerate" both projects into a formal inter-agency governance structure with defined membership and mandate.

Why severity 2

The committees are a coordination/governance instrument, not a direct trade-flow or investment-flow operative measure. They do not impose new obligations on concessionaires, change tariff rates, restrict imports/exports, or alter sector-entry conditions. Their significance is indirect: (a) they accelerate the plan-amendment approval cycle (which directly affects TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil FID timelines), (b) they signal whole-of-government political commitment to the two projects at the highest executive level, and (c) they create the administrative architecture through which future substantive regulatory actions (plan modifications, fiscal renegotiations, development-plan approvals) will flow. Severity 1 would understate the structural importance to ~USD 50bn+ projects at inflection points; severity 3 would overstate direct operative effect.

Downstream implications

• TotalEnergies timeline: Mozambique LNG Area 1 first-cargo target is now 2029; the committee's ability to rapidly clear plan-amendment dossiers (scope reductions, revised CAPEX envelopes, renegotiated contractor packages) is the critical path bottleneck for hitting that target.
• ExxonMobil FID: Rovuma LNG Area 4 FID has been described as expected "in the near future" / H2 2026. Committee clearance of the development plan amendments submitted by ExxonMobil is the regulatory precondition for FID.
• ENH national-champion consolidation: Both committees include ENH as a technical participant, reinforcing its role as the state's primary instrument across the LNG value chain (equity participant, infrastructure concessionaire, committee stakeholder).
• South Africa gas security: ROMPCO pipeline (covered by the November 2025 concession decree) supplies ~5% of South African industrial gas; Rovuma LNG FID acceleration de-risks the long-term supply contract underpinning the ROMPCO expansion.

Open questions

• Resolution numbers and Boletim da República publication references not yet publicly confirmed — INP and Club of Mozambique communiqués reference Council of Ministers approval but do not cite the specific Resolução do Conselho de Ministros numbers.
• Whether the committee's plan-amendment clearance will require Conselho de Ministros ratification (creating a formal approval step) or operates as a technical advisory/facilitation body only.
• Fiscal renegotiation scope: whether plan-amendment reviews will include renegotiation of the fiscal regime for either project (royalties, profit-petroleum splits, corporate income tax rates) — not confirmed by current sources but a material risk for both TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil.