Page 5 - DMEA Week 48 2022

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Focus on Rovuma LNG has been postponing an FID on Rovuma LNG.
Nyusi, for his part, confirmed to Africa-Press However, new incentives have emerged for the
that the parties were in discussions on the US giant to push the project forward.
matter. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has
Neither Brusco nor the Mozambican pres- upended European energy markets, sending
ident said so explicitly, but the reference to EU member states and European gas buyers on
“onshore developments” indicates that Eni and a hunt for new suppliers. Under these circum-
Maputo are looking for ways to jump-start the stances, Rovuma LNG – which is designed to be
Rovuma LNG project. (Eni is a shareholder in largest of the three major gas projects planned
both projects; it is the operator of Coral South for the Rovuma basin, with a production capac-
LNG and a non-operating partner in Rovuma ity of 15.2mn tonnes per year (tpy), larger in
LNG, which is led by the US super-major scope than either Coral South LNG at 3.4mn tpy
ExxonMobil.) or Mozambique LNG at 12.88mn tpy – might
That is, the parties are not trying to expand just be worth the trouble.
the capacity of Coral South LNG, which never As a shareholder in Rovuma LNG, then, Eni
had an onshore component. Instead, they are has good reasons to suggest that ExxonMobil Eni is trying to
trying to make up for some of the time that consider a different approach and offer its own
Rovuma LNG has lost because of security con- expertise. make up for some
ditions in Cabo Delgado. It’s not exactly clear yet, though, how the US
In that province, attacks carried out by super-major will respond. Descalzi said in late of the time that
Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo (ASWJ), a group said July that Eni’s partners in Rovuma LNG were Rovuma LNG has
to be connected to Islamic State (Daesh), have “positive” about the FLNG idea and saw this
already led TotalEnergies (France) to halt approach as a feasible workaround for the delays lost because
work on the onshore complex that will anchor stemming from the security situation in Cabo
its Mozambique LNG project, and it remains Delgado. of security
to be seen when construction will resume. In However, ExxonMobil itself has not com-
turn, TotalEnergies’ woes have led ExxonMobil mented publicly on the matter, and as of mid- conditions in
to delay a final investment decision (FID) on July the company was reported to be looking Cabo Delgado
Rovuma LNG. This is largely because the pro- into the option of using modular techniques to
ject is, like Mozambique LNG, based on the idea build an onshore LNG plant.
of extracting large volumes of gas offshore and This could indicate that ExxonMobil may be
then piping it to shore for processing and load- slow to change course on the Rovuma LNG pro-
ing on tankers for export. ject, even if the FLNG only served as a tempo-
In other words, it too would require the con- rary solution until the onshore LNG plant could
struction of an onshore facility, and therefore be built.
it too would be vulnerable to onshore security If so, that would not necessarily be a surprise.
violations. As a result, it too has fallen behind After all, the company is one of the largest in the
because of difficulties in restoring stability in world, and it will have accumulated a certain
Cabo Delgado. amount of bureaucratic trappings that could
slow the process of changing course. Even so, it
Need for more gas seems that there is at least a conversation under-
In practical terms, this means that ExxonMobil way. ™

Mozambique’s first gas export cargo departed from the Coral Sul FLNG on November 13 (Photo: Eni)

Week 48 01•December•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5