Eni has begun feeding gas into its Tango LNG facility, offshore Congo Brazzaville.
The Italian company said it expected to produce its first LNG cargo from Tango by the first quarter of 2024. Tango began receiving gas in record time, only 12 months after reaching final investment decision (FID).
The FLNG plant can liquefy around 1 billion cubic metres per year of LNG, or 0.6 million tonnes. The vessel is moored next to the Excalibur floating storage unit (FSU). Eni said this used an innovative “split mooring” configuration, a first for an FLNG project.
Tango is the first FLNG vessel on the Marine XII permit. Eni has ordered a second unit to carry out liquefaction on the licence, with Wison Heavy Industries winning construction work in December 2022. This second facility will have capacity to produce 2.4mn tpy of LNG.
Eni said this second FLNG vessel will begin producing in 2025. The company will market all of the produced LNG, it said.
The Italian major already produces gas to meet 70% of Congo’s power generation.
Eni is building on successes from its Coral Sul FLNG project, offshore Mozambique. This Mozambique project can produce 3.4mn tpy of LNG and has been so successful that the company is working on plans for a second unit.
However, gas prices have fallen since Eni fast-tracked development of the Tango LNG project. European gas storage reached record levels in November and, as a result, the outlook is much softer, at least in the near term.
Looking further into the future, though, Eni will hope that the gas crisis of 2022 will put global LNG demand in a stronger position.
Eni works on the Marine XII licence alongside Russia’s Lukoil and state-owned Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC).
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