Mozambique Oil & Gas: Eni says Coral FLNG construction advancing on several fronts

The construction of the floating platform to start natural gas exploration in northern Mozambique is advancing on several fronts, oil company Eni said on Friday, one year after the announcement of the investment.

“The activities of construction of the tower and the anchorage system began in March,” said a company source contacted by Lusa.

At the moment, tenders, consultations and engineering studies are underway, in order to develop “the construction of the hull and the surface modules at the end of 2018”.

The implementation schedule “is progressing according to plan” the same source added, and the Coral Sul project is expected to start operating in Area 4 in 2022.

Asked about the expansion to the Mamba field, the same company said that “the activities are in progress, but it’s too early for any comment”.

Eni also declined to comment on recent episodes of armed violence in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, noting that the investment is located offshore.

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On June 1, 2017, a consortium led by Eni and including Portugal’s Galp, announced in Maputo the final investment decision worth US$8 billion to extract natural gas from offshore deposits in the Rovuma basin via a floating platform that will liquefy and transfer it to ships.

“This venture marks the beginning of the transformation of this strategic Mozambican resource into money,” Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi said at the time.

Claudio Descalzi, chief executive officer of Eni, pointed to the Coral Sur project as the largest investment in the sector in the last three years, one which would lead to the first platform for the production of liquid natural gas in Africa.

In December 2017, Eni concluded the sale of a 25 percent indirect interest in the consortium to the US company ExxonMobil in a transaction worth US$2.8 billion (EUR 2.3 billion), each company now holding a quarter of the total Area 4 investment.Source: Lusa