Mozambique’s national petroleum institute INP said that the country’s natural gas and liquefaction projects remain in line with the schedule agreed between the government and investing companies. INP’s chairman Carlos Zacarias recently in a press conference said that despite the suspension of activities in Afungi due to the Covi-19 pandemic, implementation activities for the Eni’s Coral South FLNG and Total’s Golfinho/Atum projects have been rescheduled. And the reschedule is to avoid delays on start-up these projects amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drilling and well completion activities for the deepwater Coral South FLNG project are now planned for early 2021. The floating liquefaction vessel is under construction in South Korea and should make the journey to Mozambique next year.

“First production and export of natural gas from the Rovuma basin will happen in 2022 via the Coral South FLNG project, while production in the Area 1 via the Golfinho/Atum project starts in 2024,” Zacarias said.

Mozambique is home for one of the largest gas discoveries in a decade. Oil majors Eni, Total, and ExxonMobil are developing both offshore and onshore liquefaction projects in the country. Zacarias said that ExxonMobil is expected to take the final investment decision on the $30 billion Rovuma LNG in 2021. The final go-ahead was expected in the first half of 2020 but was postponed in March due to the pandemic. ExxonMobil has not provided a new timeline target for the FID.