Eni’s board of directors has authorized the investment for the first phase of the development of the Coral discovery (Coral South project), located in the deep waters of the Rovuma Basin in Area 4, offshore Mozambique.
The project involves the construction of six subsea wells connected to a floating production facility FLNG (Floating Liquefied Natural Gas), with a liquefaction capacity of over 3.3 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year, equivalent to approximately 5 billion cubic meters.
Mozambique authorities approved the project development plan in February.
The Coral field, discovered in May 2012 and outlined in 2013, is entirely located within Area 4 and contains about 450 billion cubic meters (16 TCF) of gas in place.
In October, Eni and its Area 4 partners signed an agreement with BP for the sale of the entire volumes of LNG produced by the FNLG Coral South, for a period of over twenty years.
The approval of this investment by Eni’s board is another step towards the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project, which will turn effective once all Area 4 partners have approved it and the project financing, which is currently being finalized, has been underwritten, Eni explained.
Eni is the operator of Area 4 with a 50% indirect interest owned through Eni East Africa (EEA), which holds a 70% stake in Area 4. The other concessionaires are Galp Energia, KOGAS and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), each owning a 10% stake. CNPC owns a 20% indirect interest in Area 4 through Eni East Africa.