Eni Starts on Mozambique FLNG

Italian Eni has started installation work on the hull of the 3.4mn metric tons/year Coral Sul floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) treatment and liquefaction unit that will be moored offshore in Mozambique, it said July 22. 

The hull is expected to be launched in 2020, in line with the planned production startup of the Coral South Project in 2022 and it will be the first FLNG vessel ever to be deployed in the deep waters of the African continent. The Coral field has reserves of 450bn m³.

The vessel, which will be 432 metres long and 66 metres wide and weigh about 220,000 mt, will be able to house up to 350 people in its eight-storey accommodation module. The facility will be anchored at a water-depth of around 2,000 metres by means of 20 mooring lines.

Construction work on the Coral Sul FLNG started in 2018 and is ongoing in seven operational centres across the world.

Drilling and completion activities for the six subsea wells that will feed the liquefaction unit will begin in September 2019 and be carried out by the Saipem 12000 drilling rig and completed by the end of 2020.

Alongside the LNG infrastructure under construction, the Coral South project also includes a number of initiatives aimed at enhancing the overall capabilities of the local workforce. These include specialised training activities for over 800 Mozambicans, who will eventually be employed during the operational phase of the project. Eni is also engaged in a broad programme of social, economic and health care initiatives, to support a long-term, diversified and sustainable development of the local communities.

Between 2011 and 2014, Eni discovered supergiant natural gas resources in the Coral, Mamba Complex and Agulha reservoirs, holding estimated 2.4 trillion m³ of gas in place.