Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

Total declares force majeure on Mozambique LNG project

 26 April 2021 - 08:57

BY REUTERS
Total's liquefied natural gas plant in the Afungi peninsula of Mozambique.
Total's liquefied natural gas plant in the Afungi peninsula of Mozambique.
Image: Mozambique LNG

French energy group Total said on Monday it was declaring force majeure on its Mozambique liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and withdrawing all personnel from the Afungi site.

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On March 24, insurgents attacked the coastal Mozambique town of Palma, near natural gas projects worth $60bn (about R856bn) that are meant to transform Mozambique’s economy.

“Considering the evolution of the security situation in the north of the Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, Total confirms the withdrawal of all Mozambique LNG project personnel from the Afungi site. This situation leads Total, as operator of the Mozambique LNG project, to declare force majeure,” the company said. 

Earlier this month Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi said the government will work to restore peace in the country after last month’s militant attack near the multi-billion-dollar gas projects backed by global oil companies.

Total suspended work on the project, which is due to produce its first cargo in 2024, on March 27 after the militant attack.

The force majeure implies a weightier suspension and allows Total to cancel contractors.

Force majeure was "the only way to best protect the project interest until work can resume," a Total spokeswoman added.

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The Mozambique government is due to hold a news conference on the situation on Monday morning.

The LNG project includes development of the Golfinho and Atum natural gas fields in the Offshore Area 1 concession and the construction of a two-train liquefaction plant with capacity of 13.12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). Total is operator of the Mozambique LNG project and obtained a $14.9 billion debt financing package in July to fund its rollout.


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