Pieton also said earlier this year that the floating LNG production project in Mozambique has “potential” for a final investment decision in 2024.
Back in November 2022, the 3.4 mtpa Coral Sul (Coral South) FLNG in Mozambique shipped its first cargo of LNG, adding Mozambique to the LNG producing countries.
The TJS consortium, consisting of Technip Energies, JGC, and Samsung Heavy, built the unit for Eni, the first floating LNG facility ever to be deployed in the deep waters of the African continent.
Eni discovered Coral back in May 2012 and it operates the Area 4 along its partners ExxonMobil, CNPC, GALP, Kogas, as well as ENH.
The partners are now working on the second FLNG project offshore Mozambique, called Coral Norte (Coral North), and the project would be a replica of Coral South.
Asked about Eni’s Coral North project during the Technip Energies H1 earnings conference call on Thursday, Pieton said the “engagement with the client continues”.
“As I like to say, we don’t control the date of FIDs.. and whether it is going to be by December 31 of this year or in 2025. But there is a high possibility for this FID to take place in 2024,” he said.
Large LNG opportunities pipeline
Pieton said the LNG opportunities pipeline is “very healthy” and it is in the range of 33 billion euros ($35.6 billion) by the end of 2026.
“I will point to the fact that we had very good success this year” in LNG despite the moratorium on non-FTA (free trade agreement) permits in the US.
“Beyond Coral, at some time there could be a revision of the moratorium in the US.. we continue our involvement with developers in the US. We took advantage of the moratorium to progress engineering and derisking of potential future projects,” he said.
He also mentioned there are “more opportunities about floating LNG as well in South America and East Africa.”
Technip Energies is currently working on the giant Qatari LNG expansion projects.
The first train at QatarEnergy’s North Field East LNG project in Qatar is more than 50 percent complete.
In February 2021, Technip Energeis and Chiyoda won the EPC award for QatarEnergy’s NFE project which includes building four trains with a capacity of 8 mtpa in the Ras Laffan complex.
In May last year, Technip Energies and and Consolidated Contractors Company won the NFS LNG contract from QatarEnergy worth about $10 billion to build two LNG trains with a capacity of 8 mtpa each.
Besides these expansion, QatarEnergy announced in February this year the third North Field expansion phase, called the North Field West project, with a capacity of 16 mtpa.
Discussing the NFW project, Pieton said “there is not much more to say on the matter, but we continued our engagement with QatarEnergy on preparing the launch of such project.”
Rovuma LNG
During the call, Pieton also touched upon ExxonMobil’s planned Rovuma LNG onshore terminal in Mozambique.
“You’ve read about Rovuma. There is a FEED competition ongoing in Mozambique and we are one of the two contenders,” Pieton said.
He did not provide further information.
Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV) is the operator of the deepwater Area 4 block in the Rovuma basin off Mozambique that would feed the planned LNG export plant on the Afungi peninsula from the Mamba reservoirs.
The joint venture is owned by Eni, ExxonMobil and CNPC, and holds a 70 percent interest in the Area 4 exploration and production concession contract.
In addition to MRV, Galp, Kogas, and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos each hold a 10 percent interest in Area 4.
