Mozambique welcomes Africa’s first floating gas plant

Mozambique has welcomed Africa’s first-ever floating gas plant. The arrival of the deep-sea floating Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facility in Mozambique marks a major milestone ahead of imminent production from an offshore gas field.

The floating gas plant – known as the Coral Sul FLNG – arrived in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin last week, in line with the schedule approved by the Government of Mozambique, Mozambique’s National Petroleum Institute announced.

The plant is critical to the US $7 billion Coral South project, which is operated by Italian oil and gas company Eni.

The 220 000-ton vessel is the first FLNG built for deep waters and the first specifically built for Africa at a length of 432 meters and 66 meters wide, with the capacity to liquefy 3.4 million tons of natural gas per year.

According to National Petroleum Institute, its construction, began in 2018 in different operating centres across the world, with the main component being built at Samsung Heavy Industries’ shipyards in Goeje Island, South Korea.

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The Coral Sul FLNG platform was built by the concessionaires of Area 4, namely Empresa Nactional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), with a 10% participating interest, Eni, with MRV with 70%, GALP ENERGY and KOGAS, both with 10%.

It will be linked to six subsea gas producing wells, with its LNG earmarked to be sold exclusively to BP under a 20-year offtake agreement signed in 2016.

Since arriving in Mozambican waters, a complex process of anchoring, surveys, inspections and certifications has begun, in line with the applicable legislation, with a view to issuing the operating licenses and, consequently, meeting the pre-approved schedule by the Government for the planned start of production in the second half of the year.

According to Eni, the installation campaign includes mooring and hook-up operations at a water depth of around 2000 meters by means of 20 mooring lines that weigh 9000 tons in total.

The Coral South project will see Eni providing specialist training for more than 800 Mozambican workers, who will be employed in the project’s operational phase.

Coral South is one of a number of energy projects located in the Rovuma basin.