Eni’s 3.4 mtpa Coral Sul FLNG located offshore Mozambique is preparing to export its first cargo of liquefied natural gas.
The 173,400-cbm British Mentor, operated by BP, is expected to arrive at the floating LNG producer on August 24, its AIS data provided by VesselsValue shows.
BP will buy all of the LNG produced at the FLNG as part of a long-term deal.
LNG Prime contacted Eni for a comment regarding the first shipment but we did not receive a reply by the time this article was published.
In June, the FLNG received its first gas supplies from the Coral South reservoir offshore Mozambique.
Eni discovered Coral back in May 2012 and it operates the Area 4 along its partners ExxonMobil, CNPC, GALP, Kogas, as well as ENH.
Eni said in June the FLNG would be ready to achieve its first LNG cargo in the second half of 2022, adding Mozambique to the LNG producing countries.
The unit which weighs about 220,000 tons left Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje yard in South Korea under tow on November 16 and arrived in Mozambique in early January.
According to Eni, Coral Sul is the first FLNG operating in ultra-deep waters, connected to an underwater system at a depth of around 2,000 meters.
With a length of 432 meters and width of 66 meters, it has the capacity to accommodate up to 350 people in its eight-story living quarter module.
Second FLNG
Besides this unit, Eni is also working on a second floating LNG producer to install it offshore Mozambique.
Eni’s chief executive Claudio Descalzi said last month during the company’s second-quarter conference call that the company was discussing with its partners a possible additional offshore development through LNG, “the same fast LNG we are developing in Congo.”
The size of the project can range from 2.5 to 3 million metric tons per year, Descalzi said.
Earlier this year, Eni signed a deal with US LNG player New Fortress Energy under which the latter would deploy its floating liquefaction technology off the coast of Congo for a period of 20 years.
Under the deal, NFE would install its “Fast LNG” facility to produce up to 1.4 million metric tons per year of LNG in the associated gas fields off the coast of Congo.
NFE’s liquefaction design pairs the modular, midsize liquefaction technology with jack up rigs or similar floating infrastructure.
Besides this, Eni recently signed a deal to buy Exmar’s Tango FLNG and plans to deploy the unit in Congo.
The floating LNG producer, delivered in 2017, has a storage capacity of 16,100 cbm and a liquefaction capacity of up to 0.6 million tons per year.
According to Exmar, the value of the deal is in a range of $572 and $694 million, depending on the actual performance of the Tango FLNG during the first six months on site.