Italy’s Eni will soon ship the first liquefied natural gas cargo from its Tango floating LNG facility moored in Congolese waters.
The first LNG cargo is currently being loaded and will sail to Snam’s Piombino FSRU-based terminal, in Italy, in the coming days, according to a statement by Eni.
The 2010-built 155,000-cbm LNG carrier, GasLog Savannah, is loading the first LNG cargo, its AIS data shows.
With the first cargo, the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, enters the group of LNG exporting countries.
The Congo LNG project, sanctioned in December 2022, came on stream after just 1 year, Eni said.
Eni introduced the first gas in December 2023 into its Tango FLNG facility. Prior to that, the unit arrived in Congo from Dubai.
The Italian firm purchased the 144 meters long Tango FLNG from Belgium’s Exmar and chartered the 2002-built steam turbine LNG carrier, Excalibur, to serve as an FSU for the project.
Moreover, the floating LNG producer, delivered in 2017 by China’s Wison, has a liquefaction capacity of about 1 billion cubic meters per year of gas, or 0.6 mtpa, and a storage capacity of 16,100 cbm.
Eni said the FLNG project, situated within the Marine XII permit, will achieve a plateau gas liquefaction capacity of about 4.5 billion cubic meters per annum and will mark zero flaring from operated activities in country.
A second FLNG vessel with a capacity of about 3.5 bcm per year of gas, or 2.4 mtpa, is under construction in China and is expected to begin production in 2025.
Wison Offshore & Marine won a contract from Eni in December 2022 to build the 380 meters long FLNG.
The unit will be able to store over 180,000 cubic meters of LNG.
The volumes produced from the FLNG project will be marketed by Eni, strengthening and expanding the company’s LNG portfolio, it said.
