China’s Wison (Nantong) Heavy Industry has officially started building a floating LNG producer that Italy’s Eni will install in Congo.
To mark the construction start, the unit of Wison Offshore & Marine held a ceremony on January 17 for the Eni Marine XII Congo LNG project.
Over 200 people attended the ceremony, including officials from Wison, Eni, and others, according to a statement by Wison Offshore & Marine.
Under the project, Wison said it would build a 380 meters long 2.4 mtpa FLNG with 60 meters in breadth and 35 meters in draft.
According to Wison, the unit would be moored using a submerged swivel Yoke system in about 40 meters water depth in the Nene Marine Field area, about 50 kilometers offshore Pointe Noire.
The FLNG would be able to store over 180,000 cubic meters of LNG and 45,000 cubic meters of LPGs, the Chinese firm said.
Two FLNG units for Congo
Eni announced the award of this contract last month.
This facility will be the second FLNG to be deployed in Congo.
In August last year, Eni signed a deal to buy Exmar’s Tango FLNG and expects the unit to start production in 2023.
The floating LNG producer, delivered in 2017 by Wison, has a storage capacity of 16,100 cbm as well as a liquefaction capacity of up to 0.6 million tons per year.
With the second FLNG, overall LNG production capacity on Marine XII would reach 3 million tons/year or over 4.5 billion cubic meters/year in 2025, Eni said.
Both initiatives are part of Marine XII gas valorization plan, in line with Eni’s strategy to leverage gas equity.
Besides these units, Eni shipped the first cargo of LNG in November from its 3.4 mtpa Coral Sul FLNG located offshore Mozambique.
In addition, Eni is planning to install a second floating LNG production unit offshore Mozambique as well.