Dutch ocean-towing company ALP will tow Eni's giant FLNG vessel Coral Sul (South) from South Korea to Mozambique, and will also assist with the mooring operations once on location.

ALP on Monday said that TechnipFMC and JGC had contracted it to provide a spread of five vessels related to the towing and positioning of the 432m long and 66m wide Coral South FLNG unit

Three of ALP’s 300ts Bollard Pull ALP FUTURE class vessels will tow the FLNG unit from South Korea to offshore Mozambique.

Once at the location, the three ALP vessels will be joined by two more vessels from the ALP 19,000 BHP fleet. 

Together, the vessels will keep the FLNG unit accurately in position, while a mooring vessel connects the pre-laid mooring chains to the FLNG. On completion of the mooring operation, two of the five ALP-vessels will continue to support further operations on site.

Related: Eni's Coral Sul FLNG hull launched

Arjan van de Merwe, Project Manager of ALP said: "ALP is very proud to have been selected for this project. It is the first deepwater FLNG built to date and it is the first floating production plant to be installed in Mozambique and on all African East Coast."

The hull for the Coral Sul FLNG was launched last month at Samsung's Geoje yard in South Korea.

Once completed the FLNG unit will be deployed over Eni's Coral reservoir in Area 4 offshore Mozambique and will be used to produce 450 billion cubic meters of gas found at the reservoir.

Eni said Tuesday that the launch marked the timely progress of the project, "which exceeds 60% completion and is in line with production start-up by 2022."