Eni to drill up to 6 wells offshore Mozambique for Coral North project, third FLNG being pursued

CAPE TOWN, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Italian energy firm Eni ENI.MI will start drilling up to six development wells from November that will feed gas to its new Coral North floating liquefied natural gas platform offshore Mozambique, a senior executive told Reuters on Thursday.

The project is on track to start production by 2028, doubling the company's output to around 7 million metric tons per annum, Mario Bello, Eni's Head of sub-Saharan Africa said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Cape Town.

"Mozambique actually is a premium gas source. I think geographically it's just perfectly located to fit the premium LNG market that is in the Far East without having a critical transit route," he said in reference to the Iran war that has choked off major gas and oil shipping routes.

Bello said Eni, which previously said it was considering a third FLNG offshore Mozambique due to the country's abundant gas resources in the Rovuma Basin, was currently in the early pre-front-end engineering and design stage on the project.

"And we are evaluating all aspects of the project," Bello said, adding the plan was for a larger platform higher than 5 MTPA.

This process will pave the way towards taking a final investment decision, he said without providing a timeline.