The Rovuma Basin Area Four consortium has taken the Final Investment Decision (FID) regarding the Floating Liquefied Natural gas (FLNG) unit in the neighbourhood of the Coral South gas field off the coast of Mozambique.
The Area Four license is located 50 km from the Northern province of Cabo Delgado (close to Tanzania). The Coral field, discovered in May 2012 and outlined in 2013, is entirely located within Area 4 (estimated to hold 85 tcf or 2,400 bcm of gas) and contains about 450 bcm of gas in place. The project includes the construction of 6 subsea wells connected to a floating LNG (FLNG) plant, able to produce 3.4 Mt/year of LNG. The production of LNG is set to start in 2022 and all the gas produced from the FLNG plant will be sold to British Petroleum (BP) for a 20-year period.
The partners developing the Coral South field and the FLNG project are Eni East Africa (70%, divided into 20% for CNPC and 50% for Eni), Mozambique's National Hydrocarbon Company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH, with 10%), KOGAS (10%) and GALP Energia (10%). In March 2017, Eni sold a 25% stake to ExxonMobil for US$2.8bn. The company is expected to continue to lead the Coral floating LNG project and all upstream operations in Area 4, while ExxonMobil will lead the construction and operation of the natural gas liquefaction facilities onshore.
Mozambique plans to invest US$30bn in its natural gas sector and hopes to produce 20 Mt/year of LNG in the near future. The first exports are due to start in 2018.