Italian oil and gas company Eni has launched the hull of its Coral Sul FLNG unit 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."

The hull, launched Tuesday, is 432 meters long, 66 meters wide and weighs approximately 140,000 tons. First steel for the hull was cut in September 2018.

Its accommodation module, which will house up to 350 people, is also ready to be lifted and integrated with the hull system, Eni said Tuesday. 

"Fabrication activities are also well underway for the 12 gas treatment and LNG modules, with all main equipment ready for integration and first deck stacking executed," Eni said.

The FLNG unit will have a gas liquefaction capacity of 3.4 million tons per year (MTPA), and it will be the first FLNG ever deployed in deep waters, at a water depth of approximately 2,000 meters. While not the first operational FLNG unit in Africa, the unit will be the first purpose-build FLNG in Africa. 

Namely, Cameroon was the first African nation to bring online an FLNG unit (in 2018), however, the vessel was converted from the 1975-built Moss LNG carrier and not purpose-built

Commenting on the Coral Sul hull launching, Adriano Mongini, Eni’s EVP, West Africa Region, said that “the Coral Sul FLNG hull launching is an outstanding milestone which has been possible thanks to the commitment of Eni, its Area 4 partners, contractors, and Mozambican authorities. We share the belief that Coral South is a pioneering project that will trigger further developments and new investments.”