Maputo – Italian energy giant ENI will start producing liquefied natural gas off the coast of northern Mozambique in the first half of next year, the government said on Friday.
The announcement came after ENI chief execuctive Claudio Descalzi met President Filipe Nyusi in Maputo to discuss the project.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Max Tonela told journalists that offshore drilling at the Coral South project was completed last week.
“It is expected that construction of the platform will be finalised this year, so the outlook is positive that, by the end of the first half of 2022, Mozambique will start to produce and export LNG,” Tonela told journalists.
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The ENI project is located offshore from Cabo Delgado province, cushioning it from the four-year Islamist insurgency that has killed more than 3 400 people and displaced around 800 000 others.
In March, militants launched an attack on the gas hub and coastal town of Palma, halting the construction of a $20-billion liquefied natural gas project led by French group TotalEnergies.
Descalzi said the ENI project was the first “to produce the large gas reserves that we have discovered in Mozambique”.
All of the gas at the site will be sold to Britain’s BP.
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Source: AFP
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