Exxon Pledges $500mn Initial Spend at Rovuma LNG: Press

ExxonMobil has pledged to spend more than $500mn on the initial construction phase at the 15.2mn mt/yr Rovuma LNG export project off Mozambique.

“The Area 4 partners will advance midstream and upstream area project activities of more than $500mn as initial investments,” Exxon’s head of power and gas marketing Peter Clarke said at a ceremony in Mozambique’s capital Maputo on October 8, according to Reuters.

Exxon and its Italian partner Eni have said before that Rovuma LNG should start up in 2024. The US major has just awarded $3.7bn in contracts to Japan’s JGC Holdings, US firm Fluor and UK-based TechnipFMC to build the plant. According to Clarke, these contracts cover construction of the production trains and associated onshore facilities.

Exxon is yet to announce a final investment decision (FID) on the $30bn project, but it said last year that this step would be taken by the end of 2019.

Rovuma LNG, along with a $20bn liquefaction complex planned by France’s Total and a $8bn facility by Italy’s Eni, will provide Mozambique with more than 31mn mt/yr of LNG to export each year.