The board of the U.S. Export-Import Bank has unanimously reauthorized a $4.7 billion loan for a controversial liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, a sign that federal agencies are moving to align with President Donald Trump’s push to prop up fossil fuels.
The deal, which was approved last week but only made public Wednesday, would support an LNG facility being developed by TotalEnergies SE in the troubled Afungi region that has been the site of an ongoing Islamist insurgency and linked to reports of a massacre of at least 97 civilians by government forces hired to guard the Total project.
The bank originally approved a $5 billion loan for the project during Trump’s first term in 2019, saying it would support thousands of American jobs through the export of U.S. equipment and services needed for construction. The loan was later revised down to $4.7 billion — still making it the largest deal in the agency’s history.
But in 2021, Islamist rebels overran the region, massacring more than 1,000 people and forcing TotalEnergies to stop work on the project. Financing from the U.S. and other lenders was suspended. A POLITICO investigation found that the government forces providing security to the TotalEnergies natural gas plant abducted, torture and killed dozens of civilians. Officials in the Netherlands and Mozambique are investigating the killings. Total has denied any wrongdoing.
