Construction of Eni’s second Congo-bound FLNG unit gains ground

Chinese shipyard Wison Heavy Industry, a subsidiary of Wison Offshore & Marine Limited (WOM), is advancing construction works on a 2.4 million tonnes per year (mtpa) floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) unit ordered by Italian oil and gas company Eni.

According to the shipyard’s social media update, the hull steel-cutting ceremony was held on 31 March in Nantong Yard for Eni’s second FLNG unit being built for deployment offshore Congo.

WOM and Eni, together with the project’s classification society, major suppliers, and construction contractors, signed the HSE Pledge of Subcontractor for Congo LNG development project to ensure the project will be carried out under the principle of safety, environment-friendly, and sustainable development, Wison said.

The construction of the FLNG unit began at the beginning of the year, following the preliminary activities that had started with long lead items on order and steel cutting of cryogenic tanks on 20 December 2022.

The 380-metre-long and 60-metre-wide FLNG unit will be anchored at a water depth of around 40 metres in the Nene Marine Field area, around 50 kilometres offshore Pointe Noire. It will be able to store over 180,000 cubic metres of LNG and 45,000 cubic metres of LPG.

This will be the second FLNG facility to be deployed in Congo – the first one being Tango FLNG of 0.6 mtpa capacity – with LNG production expected to begin in 2023.

Both projects are part of the Marine XII gas valorisation plan, in line with Eni’s strategy to leverage gas equity.

With the second project, the overall LNG production capacity on Marine XII will reach 3 million tons/year (over 4.5 billion cubic metres/year) in 2025.