LNG Tanker Arrives in Mozambique For First Cargo

By Jorge Joaquim LNG tanker British Sponsor is anchored in the Rovuma Basin ready to take the first cargo from the Coral Sul floating gas liquefaction platform, in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. The LNG tanker is owned by British oil and gas company BP, which has agreed to purchase all the LNG produced at the platform for 20 years. “We hope that before the end of this month of October the first export of liquefied natural gas produced by the country will take place,” said Mozambique's minister of economy and finance, Max Tonela. The LNG will be produced on the Coral-Sul floating platform, belonging to a consortium led by the Italian energy company, Eni. The platform, built in a Korean shipyard, arrived in Mozambican waters in January, and is now anchored in Area Four of the Rovuma Basin, some 40 kilometres from the mainland. This is the first deep-water platform in the world to operate at a water depth of about two thousand meters. Budgeted at over seven billion US dollars, the Coral South project is expected to produce 3.4 million tons of LNG per year over its estimated 25-year lifespan.