Eni’s first FLNG vessel has arrived in Mozambican waters and has been installed where it will start operating in the second half of the year, and is expected to start exploring for gas from the Area 4 South Coral deepwater field as early as November 2022.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the process on Eni’s part, quoted by the specialized natural resources portal Upstream, address the process of exploring for additional gas resources in Area 4 and assume that a second liquefaction plant “will be firmly on the company’s radar by now.”
One project observer even says, “there is no doubt, this is being thought about,” adding that this is an “open topic” of discussion in Maputo. The second source confirms that another FLNG plant could be a reality in the near term.
Evaluating Solutions
Asked about the possibility of using a second liquefaction unit, a company spokesman, quoted in the same portal, assumes that “Eni and its partners are actively evaluating all technical solutions to enable the timely production of Mozambique’s considerable gas resources.”
Eni is responsible for the offshore operation of the Area 4 development, with US-based ExxonMobil responsible for the onshore projects.
Area 4 hosts about 85 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas, mainly in the Mamba field, whose resources underpin the Rovuma LNG project, but also in the Coral field.
The Coral South vessel will explore about 5 Tcf of the southern part of Coral’s estimated 15 Tcf resource base.
The South Coral unit was built in South Korea by a group consisting of Samsung Heavy Industries, Japan’s JGC and France’s Technip Energies under a $2.5 billion contract awarded in 2017.
