A second floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) factory for Mozambique would have minimal negative impact on its sensitive surroundings, a draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) study by Consultec environmental consultants has found.
Italy’s Eni SPA has proposed locating the Coral Norte FLNG platform 10 km north of its twin Coral Sul which is currently operating in the Rovuma Basin.
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Eni expects to reach a final investment decision on its second Mozambique FLNG, which will have a production capacity of 3.5 million tons a year, in the next few months, sources told Reuters in October.
The report identified dozens of negative impacts during specialist studies that considered harmful emissions, noise pollution, oil spills and other potentially disastrous outcomes in the environmentally sensitive Mozambique Channel.
“Most of these were assessed as low or very low significance, before mitigation … In other words, they are impacts of reduced importance, which can be managed through standard mitigation and best practices,” said the non-technical summary.
Among proposals to reduce the impact of bright lights at night, for example, it was suggested that birds possibly disorientated by lights and found unharmed onboard, could be kept in dark containers before being released the following day.
The new FLNG project, which would include six subsea wells, may start operations as early as 2027, the report said.
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The draft EIA will be disseminated for public comment for one month before any new information is collated into a final report for government authorities to review.
