Eni starts building Coral South FLNG hull

Italy’s Eni said Thursday it started the construction of the hull of its Coral South floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility.

At the presence of Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Ernesto Max Tonela, Eni and its Area 4 partners held a steel cutting ceremony at Samsung Heavy Industries yard in Geoje Island, South Korea.

The ceremony takes place 15 months after Coral South project’s final investment decision, “highlighting the commitment of Area 4 Partners to start LNG production by 2022,” Eni said in its statement.

The hull is designed to accommodate the storage facilities for all the substances that will be processed and produced in the floating liquefaction plant, mainly LNG and condensates.

In addition to the storage tanks, some of the electrical, instrumentation and mechanical rooms, as well as all maritime systems related to cargo management, will be located in the hull.

The FLNG construction started with the steel cut for the ship’s turret, which took place in March this year in Singapore.

The other main component of the FLNG, the topside modules, will also be built in South Korea at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyards and the construction is planned to start end of this year, according to Eni.

The FLNG will be operating at a depth of 2,000 meters and is expected to produce around 3.4 million tonnes of LNG per year.

It is expected to be completed by the end of 2021 and first gas is expected in 2022.

Eni is the delegated operator for the Coral South FLNG project, the first project to monetise the gas resources discovered in Area 4, Mozambique.

The Area 4 participants are Eni (25%), ExxonMobil (25%), CNPC (20%), Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos E.P. (10%), Kogas (10%) and Galp Energia (10%).