The Italian firm announced in a statement that its CEO Claudio Descalzi and President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou N’Guesso, attended a ceremony in Pointe-Noire on Friday to mark the first shipment from the newbuild FLNG.
Eni did not provide further details regarding the first shipment from Nguya FLNG off the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville.
Images published by Eni on Saturday show the 159,800-cbm Maran Gas Delphi at the FLNG.
Descalzi said during the ceremony that Eni has been the only company to invest in gas to develop the domestic market and to reduce routine flaring.
“This decision, taken more than 20 years ago, led us to discover enough volumes to enable export as well,” he said.
“Phase 2 of the Congo LNG project was delivered in record time compared with industry averages, increasing gas availability on international markets and contributing to Italian and European energy security, while at the same time generating concrete benefits for the local economy,” Descalzi said.
3 mtpa
With Phase 2, the Congo LNG project reaches a total liquefaction capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG, equivalent to 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year, leveraging gas resources from the Nené and Litchendjili fields in the offshore Marine XII license.
Eni said this represents a further step toward its target of expanding its LNG portfolio to 20 mtpa by 2030, leveraging the flexibility, competitiveness, and geographical diversification of its equity projects.
China’s Wison New Energies built the 380-meter-long 2.4 mtpa FLNG, such as Tango FLNG, the first unit with a capacity of 0.6 mtpa, which began production in December 2023.
In August, Eni hosted the sail-away ceremony for the Nguya FLNG unit in Shanghai, China.
Eni announced the arrival and introduction of gas to the FLNG unit at the beginning of December.
Congo LNG Phase 2 features three production platforms as well as the Scarabeo 5 unit dedicated to gas treatment and compression, and the Nguya FLNG for liquefaction and export.
According to Eni, Phase 2 start-up comes only 35 months after construction of the Nguya FLNG unit began, “setting a new international industry benchmark in terms of execution speed and efficiency.”
