Coral South Project is Positioning Mozambique as an LNG Key Player

By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

The $7 billion worth Coral South project, operated by Eni in Mozambique, is positioning the country as an LNG key player in Southern Africa, Mr Juan Carlos Carol, Coral South Project Director, Eni, has said.

The project, which is the first project in the Rovuma basin, was executed in June 2017 but will start production in 2022.

According to Carol, the project consists of a floating liquefaction unit that will be connected to six subsea wells into Eni’s subsea production system, umblical and flowlines. This, he said, will be the first deepwater Floating LNG (FLNG) project worldwide, adding that it is also the first LNG project in Africa as well as Mozambique.

“Coral FLNG project will have a liquefaction capacity of 3.4 MTPA and will produce up to 5 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year.

“Been the first FLNG project in Mozambique, Coral will pave the way for other mega LNG projects, building capacity and resources which will be instrumental to boost Mozambique’s economy.

“The project is currently under execution from seven different operating centres around the world. Today, we have over 6,000 people working on the project that includes contractors and company personnel.

“The FLNG is under construction at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea while the Turret construction is taking place in Singapore. All the upstream activities, well operations and other preparations are taking place in Mozambique,” Carol said.

The Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project was taken in June 2017 and over the past years, Eni has been able to achieve several milestones in the project.

The FLNG First Steel Cut took place in September 2018. In 2019, the company delivered the 6 XTs to Mozambique to enable it to start the drilling campaign. In January 2020, it did the Hull Launch and the installations in the Topsides in the Hull.

Although there are lots of activities to be carried out on the project, Carol is very confident that production will commence by 2022.

Carol noted that despite the technical challenges on the project as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, Eni has managed to ensure the continuity of the project, adding that about 78 per cent of progress has been made overall on the project.

“Today, we have completed the lifting activities for all the Topside modules and they are already in the vessel. We have also concluded the fabrication of the Turret modules in Singapore.

“We are also starting the integration and commissioning phases of all the modules in South Korea and prepare for the next phase which will be the sail away of the FLNG FPSO.

“While we continue working in South Korea and Singapore, there are also other activities taking place in different countries such as the Flexible Risers and Flowlines are under fabrication in France.

“The manifolds fabrication has been built and in storage in Italy. And the Umbilicals fabrication has been completed and in storage in Norway. While the Christmas Trees have been delivered in Mozambique. Wellheads are already deployed in the six wells and one spare stored in Pemba,” he said.

On the Local Content Strategy on the project, Carol said that the project has created positive developments and impacts towards Mozambique workforce including SMEs, among others.

He said, “In terms of the development of the national workforce, we have developed 200 program that aims at training 200 Mozambique graduates in areas related to the energy industry.

“Today, we have trained almost 150 Mozambique professionals in the first phase of the program that was launched in 2012. About 40 professionals are undergoing the second phase of the program which was launched in 2019.

“We also have several Mozambique colleagues who have been involved in job training in South Korea towards the preparation of the operation phase.

“We will be creating up to 1,000 direct and indirect jobs. And we are also investing extensively in vocational training in collaboration with Mozambique colleges and institutions. We are also offering oil and gas scholarships.

“In 2018, we launched an SME Development program in partnership with Standard Bank on opportunities to Mozambique enterprises. So far, more than 100 SMEs have been trained in business development and nearly 600 Mozambique have also benefited from the entrepreneurship program.”

Eni is planning to establish the SURF installation and mooring pre-lay this year. The company has also developed an online portal where Mozambique local suppliers can register their business on its platform. About 600 suppliers have already been registered on its platform and about 240 of the companies have been successfully qualified to work on the company’s projects.