Page 11 - DMEA Week 42 2022

DMEA TERMINALS & TRANSPORT DMEA

Mozambique expects to dispatch first

LNG export cargo by end of October

AFRICA MOZAMBIQUE is on track to export its first was planning to add a second floating LNG facil-
LNG cargo from the Coral field, located off the ity so that it could expand production within less
coast of the country’s northernmost Cabo Del- than four years.
gado province, by the end of October, Macao The project is as yet not directly affected by
News reported on October 19. an Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado. That
The publication, based in a special adminis- conflict has, however, disrupted two larger pro-
trative region of China, quoted Mozambique’s jects – Mozambique LNG, led by TotalEnergies
Finance Minister Max Tonela as saying to the (France), and Rovuma LNG, led by ExxonMobil
Portuguese news agency Lusa: “We hope that (US). TotalEnergies began work on its project
before the end of October the first export of several years ago but suspended operations in
LNG produced by Mozambique will take place.” March 2021, following a series of armed attacks
Lusa noted that natural gas from the Coral near the site of its onshore processing facility on
field was already being processed into LNG for the Afungi Peninsula.
the upcoming shipment but did not provide any As a result, Coral South LNG is set to become
further details. However, TradeWinds reported the first to bring Mozambique’s gas to market.
separately, citing data from Kpler, that BP-op- The African state’s reserves amount to around
erated tanker known as the British Sponsor 180 trillion cubic feet (5.1 trillion cubic metres)
had arrived at the Coral natural gas field as of of gas, most of which are offshore in the Rovuma
October 16. It also quoted anonymous sources basin where the three consortia have licences.
as saying that the 173,644-cubic metre ship had Rovuma gas exports are expected to gen-
not yet loaded any LNG and would probably erate 0.3% of the total revenue of the Mozam-
carry out a number of trials and dry runs before bican state next year, which will be the first full
doing so. 12-month period of production from Coral
The cargo will eventually be loaded on the South LNG, Lusa noted, citing the national
tanker at the Coral Sul floating LNG (FLNG) budget draft for 2023.
facility installed at the Coral field by Eni (Italy) Mozambican gas production also has the
and its partners in an international consortium potential to benefit Europe by helping it to sta-
established to explore and develop a section of bilise gas supplies. European gas markets have
the offshore block known as Area 4. been in turmoil this year as a result of reduced
The FLNG vessel, which has a production deliveries from Russia following that country’s
capacity of 3.4mn tonnes per year (tpy), will invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
be used to process 450bn cubic metres of gas “The stars have re-aligned for Mozambican
from the Coral reservoir within Area 4. It is gas projects, which could not only uplift the
the first floating gas liquefaction plant ever to Mozambican economy and help deliver secure
be deployed at a deepwater field off the coast of energy for industrial development, but also help
Africa. alleviate worldwide supply shortages,” com-
BP (UK) has signed an agreement making mented Jonathan Ross, Head: Oil and Gas Sec-
it the sole off-taker of LNG from the Coral Sul tor Solutions at RMB in London. ™
FLNG vessel over a period of 20 years. Accord-
ing to previous reports, the super-major was
originally slated to take delivery of its first
cargo in August, but the shipment had to be
rescheduled.
Eni discovered the Coral field at Area 4 in
2012 and made an FID in favour of going for-
ward with the $10bn Coral South LNG project
in 2017. The other shareholders in the project
are Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV), a
joint venture owned by Eni, ExxonMobil (US)
and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC);
Galp (Portugal); KOGAS (South Korea), and
ENH, the national oil company (NOC) of
Mozambique.
Strong European demand has already led
Eni to expand the scope of the Coral South LNG
project. The Italian major said recently that it The Coral Sul FLNG will load the cargo on BP’s British Sponsor tanker (Photo: SHI)

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