MOZAMBIQUE: Resumption of Offshore Drilling Activities in Area 4
After eight months of interruption due to the impact and restrictions of the pandemic at the global level, from January 2021, operator of Area 4 resume drilling and drilling activities for the Coral South Project, National Petroleum Institute of Mozambique INP has said in a statement.
“Indeed, MRV, operator of Area 4 and the Coral South Project, notified the authorities of the arrival of the SAIPEM 12000 vessel to Pemba, scheduled for, January 5th, 2021, with the beginning of operations at sea conditioned only to the observance of formalities, including customs, loading material and boarding the remaining crew.”
This activity is in line with the plans to resume drilling and completion operations for the Coral South Project scheduled for January this year. It should be noted that drilling activities started in September 2019, however, suffered an interruption in April 2020, due to the restrictive measures imposed by the pandemic context. However, the construction of the Coral South FLNG floating platform is proceeding as planned in South Korea, with the start of the first production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) still scheduled for 2022.
According to the approved Development Plan, this platform is expected to produce 3.4 million tons per year (mtpa) of natural gas.