Global policies? Please. Let’s not insult anyone’s intelligence.
It is not “global policies” that have delayed Mozambique LNG. The projects in Mozambique have been circling for the better part of two decades. They should have been producing LNG for years by now. They have surfed some of the biggest hype waves the industry has ever seen — Fukushima, the China demand frenzy, and now the Russian gas crisis. If there was ever a sequence of tailwinds that could push a marginal LNG project across the finish line, this was it. All of it was water on the LNG mill.
And yet, here we are. Still no FID.
After this much time, a scapegoat becomes a necessity. Ideally one that is diffuse, abstract, and impossible to pin down. “Global policy” is perfect for that. Vague. Omnipresent. Unfalsifiable.
The more likely culprits are far less fashionable. The Africa factor. Local corruption. Regional instability. Chronic insecurity. And let’s not forget the dismal economics of floating liquefaction projects, which look elegant on slides and atrocious on balance sheets.
But the project team cannot say that. Admitting it would mean admitting they sold a mirage. That the economics never really worked. That execution risks were waved away with narrative instead of mitigated with discipline. Much easier to blame international policies, some shadowy cabal no one can define, or any other convenient abstraction.
Mozambique LNG is too expensive. That’s it. No ideology required.