Mozambique President, Filipe Nyusi has officially inaugurated the Coral-Sul floating liquefied natural gas vessel in the ultra-deep waters of the country’s Rovuma basin.
The inauguration, which took place on Wednnesday November 23, 2022 saw the President joined aboard the vessel by his Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy, Carlos Zacarias and other government representatives.
They were accompanied by a delegation from Integrated Energy company, Eni, led by the chief operating officer for natural resources, Guido Brusco.
The inauguration took place after the shipment of what was Mozambique’s first LNG cargo on November 13 from the world’s first ultra-deep-water FLNG vessel.
Eni described the Coral South project – gas is sourced from the eponymous reservoir – as “paving the way to a transformational change of the country through development of gas resources, an important contribution to the security and diversification of supplies to Europe and one of the most effective solutions to ensure a just energy transition.”
On the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony, President Nyusi and Eni representatives discussed the possibility of replicating the success of the Coral South project with further FLNG developments as well as onshore projects.
They also discussed the status of an agricultural feedstock project being developed by Eni and Mozambique that aims to produce oil from seeds, wastes and residues (that are not needed for food or for use on and arable lands) for use as biofuel.
Eni is the delegated operator of the Coral South project on behalf of the Area 4 partners, chief amloong whom is ExxonMobil.
The Italian company discovered what it calls the “supergiant” natural gas resources in Area 4, which include the Coral, Mamba Complex and Agulha reservoirs.
Altogether, said Eni, these fields hold an estimated 2400 billion cubic metres of gas in place.
