Eni Sets November Start for Mozambique’s Coral North Drilling Campaign at AEW 2026

Eni will begin a new drilling campaign at its Coral North FLNG project offshore Mozambique in early November, advancing development of the $7.2-billion project towards first gas in 2028. The announcement came during the Invest in Mozambique panel at African Energy Week 2026 in Cape Town.

Francesco Gasparri, Managing Director for the Eni Rovuma Basin, said Coral North was progressing on schedule, building on the operational experience of Coral Sul, which has produced LNG since 2022. Coral North will develop gas from the northern section of the Coral reservoir in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin.

“Discovering world-class resources is the starting point,” Gasparri said. “[Coral North] is seeing good progress. We are delivering on schedule and will launch this new drilling campaign in early November.”

With a planned capacity of 3.6 million tons per annum (mtpa), Coral North is expected to double Mozambique’s LNG output to approximately 7 mtpa when it begins operations. Eni holds a 50% stake in the project, alongside CNPC, KOGAS, state-owned ENH and ADNOC subsidiary XRG. The government approved its financing structure in September, establishing a framework to mobilise up to $7.2 billion.

Attention is also turning to ExxonMobil’s proposed $30-billion Rovuma LNG project, which is targeting FID in the fourth quarter of 2026. In August, the company awarded $1.1 billion in pre-investment contracts for subsea production systems and upstream equipment, advancing preparations for the planned onshore development.

Arne Gibbs, General Manager of ExxonMobil Mozambique, said the projects would strengthen Mozambique’s economy while diversifying global LNG supply. “These projects are catalysts for Mozambique’s economic development and will have immense impacts on global energy security,” he said, describing Rovuma LNG as highly competitive.

Miguel Baptista, Managing Director for Central, East and Southern Africa at SLB, welcomed the opportunity to supply the Rovuma development. “We are very grateful to ExxonMobil for giving us the opportunity to participate in this project,” he said.

The developments also raise questions about how Mozambique can maximise domestic benefits alongside LNG exports. Rudêncio Morais, CEO of ENH, said balancing commercialisation with domestic consumption remained a central challenge.

“The main challenge we have today in Mozambique is finding the balance between monetization and domestic usage of natural gas,” Morais said.

TotalEnergies’ restarted $20-billion Mozambique LNG project in Area 1 adds another major development to the pipeline, with first production targeted for 2029. Jean-Pascal Clémençon, Managing Director and Country Chair of TotalEnergies E&P Mozambique, said the restart had brought anticipated revenues closer to reality.

“With the full restart of the LNG project, revenue has moved from becoming a dream to becoming reality for Mozambique,” Clémençon said.

Local industry and logistics will be critical to delivering the expanding project portfolio. Edgar Longui, Vice President of Commercial Africa and New Territories at Technip Energies, highlighted the importance of local skills and suppliers, while AGL Mozambique Managing Director Bertrand Fleury stressed the need to mobilise equipment and workers efficiently.

“Local content and the capacity to leverage local experiences is fundamental to all the projects we support in Mozambique,” Longui said.

“From a logistics perspective, we need to be 100% assured that equipment and workforce are ready to be delivered,” Fleury said.