By: Reuters

French oil major TotalEnergies will be able to restart its Mozambique LNG project quickly, with a budget at $20.5 billion, CEO Patrick Pouyanne told investors on Thursday.

Pouyanne said media were incorrectly interpreting his letter to Mozambique's president, which requests approval for a cost increase of $4.5 billion related to the project's four-year freeze under force majeure.

"I want to be very clear and strong on this point, the budget was around $15.5 billion previously, $4.5 billion is what we've spent in these past years. So the total is not $25 billion but $20.5 billion," Pouyanne said.

Total last week lifted force majeure on the project, but final restart depends on the Mozambican government agreeing on a higher budget.

In 2020, Total signed a $14.9 billion senior debt financing agreement for the project. At that time, CFO Jean-Pierre Sbraire described the project's cost as $20 billion, with Total financing the remaining $5 billion not covered by the loans.