Area 4: Coral Sul Reaches 5 Million Tonnes of LNG Production in Rovuma Basin
Italian company Eni announced on Friday 23 August that it had reached the milestone of 5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in Area 4 of the Rovuma basin, in the province of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.
In a statement, published by Lusa, the organisation explains that ‘this is a significant milestone for the project and represents not only a major technical and operational achievement, but also a testament to the dedication, commitment and collaboration of the entire team and partners’.
‘Production from this area has been carried out by the Coral Sul FLNG platform, which began operating in October 2022 and has so far exported 70 shipments of LNG and 10 of condensate, contributing significantly to the country’s economic growth,’ says the company, according to which Coral Sul is a reference project for the industry, and has placed Mozambique among the global LNG producers, laying the foundations for a transformational change in the country, using gas resources, which at the same time contribute to a fair and sustainable energy transition.
‘This achievement reinforces our commitment to delivering exceptional value to the country. We will continue to work with our partners and the Government of Mozambique to ensure the valorisation of the vast existing gas resources and through the development of additional gas projects,’ said Marica Calabrese, General Manager of Eni Rovuma Basin, quoted in the document.
Coral Sul FLNG is a platform with a gas liquefaction capacity of 3.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and will put 450 billion cubic metres of gas into production from the ‘vast Coral reservoir’, located off the Rovuma basin.
According to reports, it is the first floating LNG facility ‘ever installed in the deep waters of the African continent’, having been ‘conceived as a pioneering project with cutting-edge technology for an offshore environment, with a strong focus on energy efficiency, at the highest level of the LNG sector’.
Area 4 is operated by Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV), a joint venture co-owned by ExxonMobil, Eni and CNPC (China), which holds a 70 per cent interest in the concession contract. Galp, Kogas (South Korea) and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (Mozambique) each have a 10 per cent stake.
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as among the largest in the world, all located off the coast of Cabo Delgado province.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant and then exporting it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium) and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely after the armed attack on Palma in March 2021, when the French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe. The other is the still unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium).
