The Italian petrochemical company Eni SpA and the Japanese Organisation for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) recently signed a memorandum of cooperation that aims, among other things, to make it possible to seek support from Japanese financial institutions to leverage the ‘Coral North’project that will be developed in the Rovuma basin, Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique.
The project ‘will be a replica of Coral South’, and will be located 50 kilometres from the coast and connected to six underwater wells at a depth of 2000 metres. Area 4 will thus produce seven mtpa (million tonnes per year).
On Monday 7 October, the Energy Connects website explained that based on the new agreement, the parties will work to increase the diversification of energy supply sources, emphasising the importance of achieving carbon neutrality in the context of economic growth and protecting energy security.
‘The partnership will serve to expand the opportunities for Eni to supply LNG to Japan, as well as promoting the energy transition process through the use of liquefied natural gas,’ he said.
A previous report drawn up by the Mozambican firm Consultec for Eni pointed out that ‘Coral North’ will require an investment of 7 billion dollars, subject to approval by the Mozambican government.
The project ‘will be a replica of Coral South’, and will be located 50 kilometres off the coast and connected to six underwater wells at a depth of 2,000 metres.Area 4 will thus produce seven mtpa (million tonnes per year)
Thus, if the schedule goes according to plan, the platform will start producing in the second half of 2027, which means it could start up even before the onshore projects, which depend on security implications due to the armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado.
The same document pointed out that the Coral North platform will be stationed ten kilometres north of Coral South, whose production started in November, making it the first project to take advantage of the large reserves in the Rovuma basin.
Meanwhile, the environmental pre-feasibility study said in March that between drilling the wells and start-up, the project is expected to employ up to 1,400 people, but these will mainly be specialised foreign professionals. During the operation phase there will be up to 900 jobs, with more opportunities for Mozambican workers.
Mozambique has three development projects approved to exploit the natural gas reserves in the Rovuma basin, classified as among the largest in the world, all located off the coast of Cabo Delgado province.
Two of these projects are larger and involve channelling the gas from the seabed to land, cooling it in a plant and then exporting it by sea in a liquid state.
One is led by TotalEnergies (Area 1 consortium) and work progressed until it was suspended indefinitely after the armed attack on Palma in March 2021, when the French energy company declared that it would only resume work when the area was safe. The other is the still unannounced investment led by ExxonMobil and Eni (Area 4 consortium).
A third completed, smaller project also belongs to the Area 4 consortium and consists of a floating platform for capturing and processing gas for export, directly at sea, which started up in November 2022.
