Irina Mironova for CEDIGAZ
TotalEnergies and its partners – Mitsui, ENH, Bharat Petroleum, Oil India, ONGC, and PTTEP – have lifted the four-year force majeure on the long-delayed Mozambique LNG project. The $20 billion onshore venture in Cabo Delgado province, suspended after the 2021 insurgent attack, returns to the spotlight as one of Africa’s most ambitious LNG developments.
Portfolio players have reshaped the LNG market. Their rise has accelerated project sanctioning, deepened liquidity, and blurred the traditional boundaries between sellers and buyers. Yet the balance of risk has shifted. While projects retain revenue certainty through take-or-pay (ToP) clauses, buyers (particularly portfolio traders), now carry the market-cycle exposure. Their flexibility is valuable in tight markets but becomes a liability in periods of oversupply.
Irina Mironova for CEDIGAZ
While 2025 has already seen a record-breaking 60+ Mtpa of U.S. LNG export capacity sanctioned through final investment decisions (FIDs), recent execution delays and contract disputes are revealing cracks in the U.S. LNG export model.
A series of major projects have advanced to FID in recent months (see Table). Yet, not all signals are bullish. Notably, Energy Transfer postponed its long-anticipated FID on Lake Charles LNG to Q1 2026, citing construction cost inflation and slower finalization of sales and purchase agreements (SPAs).