The Coral Sul Floating LNG plant leaves South Korea for Mozambique.
MAPUTO – After a seven-week voyage, Africa’s first-ever deep-sea floating Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facility has entered Mozambican waters, marking a major milestone ahead of imminent production from an offshore gas field.
The floating plant – known as the Coral Sul FLNG – arrived in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin this week, Mozambique’s National Petroleum Institute announced.
The plant is critical to the $7 billion Coral South project, which is operated by Italian oil and gas company Eni. It will produce and sell gas extracted from the southern part of the field.
The 220, 000 ton vessel, the main component of which was constructed by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, is the first FLNG built for deep waters and the first specifically built for Africa. Some 432 meters long and 66 meters wide, the plant has the capacity to liquefy 3.4 million tons of natural gas per year.
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.
Eni’s partners in Area 4 are ExxonMobil, the China National Petroleum Corporation, Empresa Nactional de Hidrocarbonetos, Galp Energia, and the Korea Gas Corporation.
The Coral Sul FLNG embarked on its voyage from South Korea on November 15 and entered Mozambican waters on January 3.
According to the National Petroleum Institute, the vessel’s arrival is “a milestone in the project’s implementation.”
Since arriving in Mozambican waters, a complex process of anchoring, surveys, inspections and certifications had begun with a view to issuing the vessel with an operating license so that production can start as planned in the second half of the year.
According to Eni’s website, the installation campaign includes mooring and hook-up operations at a water depth of around 2, 000 meters by means of 20 mooring lines that weigh 9, 000 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.
The company said it has committed to a “huge programme of work” for local communities to improve their access to basic services such as education, clean water and health care, while supporting long-term, diversified, sustainable socio-economic growth. – FIN24.
