Mozambique's president inaugurates floating LNG facility

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Italian energy company Eni said Wednesday that Mozambique's president was on hand for an inauguration ceremony marking the first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the energy-rich African nation.

President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi visited the Corul-Sul floating liquefied natural gas facility located in deep waters off the coast of Mozambique. His delegation was accompanied by Guido Brucsco, the chief operating officer for natural resources at Eni.

The Italian energy company is behind the discovery of what it considered a "supergiant" natural gas reservoir offshore Mozambique.

"Coral South, a landmark project for the gas industry, is projecting Mozambique onto the global LNG stage, paving the way to a transformational change of the country through development of gas resources, an important contribution to the security and diversification of supplies to Europe and one of the most effective solutions to ensure a just energy transition," Eni stated.

LNG has emerged as a vital component of global energy security, particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February. Russia operates a vast network of pipelines across the European continent, which gives it considerable leverage over the region's energy sector. LNG, which is shipped rather than piped, avoids some of those territorial concerns.

British energy company BP in mid-November loaded its first cargo of LNG from Mozambique, a milestone not only for Mozambique but global energy security.

Mozambique is rich in natural gas and supplies could help address some of the supply-side concerns as a result of the war in Ukraine.

BP under the terms of a long-term contract agreed to purchase all of the LNG produced from a floating production facility, Coral Sul.

While Mozambique is helping address energy security challenges in Europe, it's faced security challenges of a different kind at home. Just last year, security forces in Mozambique, with help from the military in nearby Rwanda, recaptured the key port city of Macimboa de Praia from insurgents who controlled the territory for years.