Rovuma basin offshore Mozambique will soon see the first development granted for the region. Eni SPA has reported that the government of Mozambique’s Council of Ministers granted its plan to drill and complete six subsea wells and construct and install a floating LNG facility with a capacity of 3.4 million tonnes/year (OGJ Online, Oct. 16, 2014). The approval relates to the first phase of development of 5 tcf of gas in the Area 4 permit.
The Coral discovery was made in 2012 and delineated in 2013 (OGJ Online, Feb. 26, 2013). It lies in 2,000 m of water about 80 km offshore in Palma Bay in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. To date, exploration drilling has proved a field of Eocenic age, which is estimated to contain 15 tcf of gas in place, wholly located in Area 4.
Eni and its partners are also pursuing development of the Mamba discovery, which was granted a unitization agreement with Area 1 in December 2015 (OGJ Online, Dec. 3, 2015).
Eni is operator of Area 4 with a 50% indirect interest, owned through Eni East Africa (EEA), which holds a 70% stake. Galp Energia, Korea Gas Corp., and Mazambique’s state Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) have 10% each. China National Petroleum Corp. owns 20% indirect interest in Area 4 through EEA.
