Page 6 - GLNG Week 17 2022

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Italian supermajor Eni, Congo

sign gas production, LNG deal

CONGO ITALIAN supermajor Eni and the Republic of market needs.
Congo (Brazzaville) have signed an accord to The Congo deal is part of Italy’s push to
increase natural gas production, exports and reduce dependence on gas from Russia’s Gaz-
future liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments in prom, which supplies it with 29 bcm annually,
the West African country. and follows on separate agreements in late April
The agreement allows for the acceleration with Angola, Algeria and Egypt.
and increase of production mainly through the Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Ecology
development of an LNG project, with start-up Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani led an
anticipated in 2023. Once fully operational, it Italian delegation to line up the LNG contracts.
should have a capacity of over 4.5bn cubic metres Congo’s government has also agreed with Eni
per year. to define initiatives to promote decarbonisation
Eni – currently the only company commit- and sustainable energy transition. Currently Eni
ted to developing Congo’s gas resources – said supplies gas to the Congo Power Plant (CEC),
the new LNG project would allow the country which guarantees 70% of the country’s electricity
to expand gas production to far exceed domestic production.™

Mozambique to launch gas-fired sovereign

wealth fund by October 2022, minister says

INVESTMENT MOZAMBIQUE’S $96bn sovereign wealth are ExxonMobil (US), China National Petro-
fund should be up and running by October leum Corp. (CNPC), Galp (Portugal), Korea Gas
2022, according to one of the country’s cabinet Corp. (KOGAS) and Mozambique’s state-owned
ministers. Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH).
Bloomberg quoted Finance Minister Max Tonela said on April 24 that Mozambique’s
Tonela as saying on Sunday (April 24) that the government needed to ensure that the govern-
government was finalising draft legislation that ance of the fund was “robust enough.” He did
will govern the management of the fund. not elaborate, but Bloomberg noted that the
The bill provides for the fund to be supported country’s central bank had published a pro-
by revenue that the government earns from posed model for a fund capable of accumulat-
natural gas projects that are being carried out ing savings and contributing to fiscal stability in
by international oil companies (IOCs) in the the event of fluctuations in commodity prices in
southern African country. It is due to take effect October 2020. That model called for 50% of the
just before the country’s first LNG project, Coral state’s gas revenue to be deposited into the fund
South LNG, comes on stream later this year. and the other 50% used to fund budget spending
Coral South LNG is being led by the Italian during the first 20 years after the start of LNG
major Eni. The company and its partners have production, the news agency said.
deployed a floating LNG (FLNG) vessel at Coral, The finance minister did not say exactly when
a field within the Area 4 block in the Rovuma the draft legislation would be submitted for a
Basin, located off the coast of Mozambique’s vote.
northernmost Cabo Delgado province. The Around 180 trillion cubic feet (5.1 tril-
project carries a price tag of $4.6bn, making it lion cubic metres) of natural gas in recovera-
the smallest of the three LNG schemes now tar- ble reserves has been found in Mozambique,
geting fields in the Rovuma basin. It will use the the world’s third poorest country. Most of it is
FLNG unit to produce about 3.4mn tonnes per located in offshore fields in the Rovuma basin,
year (tpy) of LNG for export. where Coral South LNG and two other consor-
BP (UK) has already arranged to buy all of tia led by international oil companies (IOCs) are
LNG produced by the consortium. Eni is serv- working. Smaller finds have been made onshore,
ing as operator of the project, and its partners in the southern part of the country.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 17 29•April•2022