When French oil giant TotalEnergies bought a $3.9 billion stake in a mammoth natural-gas field off Africa’s east coast in 2019, from Texas company Anadarko Petroleum, Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné hailed it as a “one-of-a-kind asset that perfectly fits with our strategy.” Now, that asset has become a potential major liability, as Total faces charges that it failed to protect its contractors at the gas field from a deadly terrorist attack.
The field sits in a region of Mozambique where the ISIS-linked Islamic militant group called Al-Shabaab has become a menace. In March 2021, the group turned the area into a war zone: About 200 armed men stormed the town of Palma, close to Total’s compound, slaughtering villagers with machetes and bullets. The five-day onslaught is estimated to have killed more than 1,000 locals in the impoverished area, as well as several Total contractors who were killed as they tried to flee the carnage.
On Monday, two and a half years after the horrific bloodshed, seven survivors of the assault—one of the most deadly terror attacks since 9/11—filed a criminal complaint against Total in a French court, arguing that the oil giant should have done more to protect them. The plaintiffs argued that the $147 billion multinational was guilty of involuntary manslaughter and a failure to assist a person in danger, a violation of French law. It’s a case that raises uncomfortable issues for big energy companies—many of which operate close to the world’s most dangerous conflicts.
The complaint alleges Total evacuated its employees from their secured compound in the early hours of the attack—while rebuffing frantic pleas for help from independent contractors and leaving them to fend for themselves. “This is one of the wealthiest companies in the world. You don’t just walk away,” says Nick Alexander, a British–South African citizen. Alexander supplied modular buildings for Total, and says he had seen the gas deal as a “giant opportunity” for his construction company. He survived the terror attack via a terrifying, three-day escape through the bush in an unarmed convoy; he tells Fortune he remains severely traumatized by the ordeal.
On Tuesday, Total said it rejected claims that it refused to help its contractors escape, saying that the consortium of companies behind the $20 billion Mozambique project—Total included—mobilized medical personnel and a ferry to rescue about 2,500 people, half of them civilians.
“Exceptional resources…were mobilized to deal with the situation,” Total said in a statement emailed to Fortune. The oil giant is the consortium’s biggest stakeholder, with a 26.5% share, but is in a partnership with Mozambican companies. “The evacuation plan in March 2021 after the attack…concerned all personnel…including…contractors and subcontractors,” it said.
The complainants allege that Total failed to rescue about 30 foreign contractors, including Alexander, who were holed up in a local hotel in terror for two days without food or water. Total also allegedly refused to provide aviation fuel to rescue helicopters, which had been rushed to the scene by a private security company under contract for Mozambique’s police force.
Total said on Tuesday that the company had told Mozambique employees to shelter all outside contractors inside its locked compound. “According to information available to us, these instructions were passed on,” the statement said. It also said the security helicopters, operated by a South African mercenary group called DAG, were not humanitarians, but had been hired by the Mozambique military to attack the insurgents and had been accused of abuses by humanitarian groups. Hence, the consortium “took the decision that no contribution or support could be provided to operations carried out by DAG.”
The company also allegedly failed to alert its contractors that the terrorists were closing in; the contractors assert that Total must have had advance warning, due to its 24/7 security monitoring. “There is evidence they were aware of an impending attack, but there was no warning whatsoever,” Alexander says. The group’s French lawyer, Henri Thulliez, says he believes that officials at Total headquarters knew what was happening, but “they had no real evacuation plan.”
Alexander says the company could have saved many people, with its ample fuel supplies, aircraft, and other resources. “Sixteen people I knew for years died there.”
Under French law, the prosecutor can now decide whether or not to indict Total, or refer the case to a higher judicial court. Total shut its production in Mozambique immediately after the killings.
Extracting fuel on dangerous ground
No matter the outcome of the charges, the case underscores a growing problem for energy companies, as they try to boost their production of cleaner-burning natural gas: Their multibillion-dollar projects are increasingly situated in volatile regions that can turn deadly.
That was clear in Israel this past weekend, when war with Hamas erupted on the border of Gaza, close to Chevron’s large offshore natural-gas field. The facility lies within range of rocket fire from Gaza.
On Monday, Israel’s government ordered Chevron to halt its production, citing security concerns. The facility produces most of the gas used by Israel’s electricity grid, as well as exporting some to Jordan and Egypt. Monday’s production halt came just months after Chevron announced plans for a 40% increase in production capacity, which a Chevron official said would “help with the overall stability of the region.”
Similarly in Mozambique, attacks from ISIS-aligned groups increased about 48% last year over 2021, according to United Nations estimates. Even so, the president of Mozambique—one of Africa’s poorest countries—has pleaded with Total to restart its gas production.
Total appears to be getting ready to start production again. It said on Tuesday it could “restart the project before the end of the year, subject to ongoing discussions,” and last month, CEO Patrick Pouyanné said security had “improved significantly” there.
Terrorists target energy plants
Just as governments are intensely keen to see lucrative energy developments in their countries, so terror groups have eyed oil and gas projects as prized targets where attacks can wreak disproportionate havoc.
In 2013, Al-Qaeda fighters broke into the huge In Amenas gas production facility in Algeria, which was jointly operated by BP and Norway’s Statoil, now known as Equinor. The terror group took hundreds of hostages, and killed 39 foreign oil workers, in one of the deadliest attacks on the industry. Statoil’s internal investigation found that the killers included a former worker at the plant, and that the attackers likely had inside help.
Yet a decade later, In Amenas is a key supplier to Europe, through pipelines across the Mediterranean. The terror attack is briefly noted on the Norwegian company’s website. “Ordinary operations have resumed at In Amenas,” it says.
