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 in the first week of January, Mozambique's National Petroleum Institute announced.
The plant is critical to the US$7 billion (about R110 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 1st FLNG built for deep waters and the 1st 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 6 subsea gas producing wells, with its LNG earmarked to be sold exclusively to BP under a 20-year offtake agreement signed in year 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.