Africa Oil & Gas: ENI’s challenges at Coral Norte have left TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil in a state of uncertainty – AI

Relations between the Mozambican government and ENI have become strained these past months. This is due to the demands imposed by Maputo in the development plan for the Coral Norte FLNG (floating unit dedicated to liquefied natural gas), which represents a $7.2bn investment. 

The Italian major was forced to increase the percentage of domestic gas allocated to the government from Coral Norte (3.5m tonnes) in the development plan finally accepted by the authorities in April 2025. Production is expected to begin in 2029. 

Unable to use large quantities of natural gas due to the lack of a national distribution network, and with no plans to develop new power plants, Mozambique would like to sell a significant portion of the domestic gas reserved for it on the market via LNG shipments. The government has begun discussions with traders. 

Wary majors 

Unhappy with this increase in the domestic gas share, ENI executives have pulled out all the stops to convince the Mozambique authorities not to sell it as LNG on the markets, where it could find itself in competition already marketed by the Italian major. Until now these efforts have been without success. ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi, has travelled to Maputo to meet with President Daniel Chapo – most recently on 11 June 2025, a meeting at which the Coral Norte question was brought up.

When contacted by Africa Intelligence, ENI denied that there was any disagreement and argued that “the domestic gas proposed and approved in the [Coral Norte] development plan is in accordance with the law passed in 2014, which investors are aware of”. Read more