- The exploration campaign represents Eni’s first drilling activity offshore Mozambique in eight years.
- Eni is involved in the country’s first LNG project, the Coral Sul Floating LNG initiative.
Italian multinational oil and gas central Eni has begun the initial drilling of the Raia-1 Well, located in Block A5-A in the Angoche Basin offshore Mozambique. The exploration campaign represents Eni’s first drilling activity offshore Mozambique in eight years. It falls under an exploration contract signed with the Mozambican government in 2018 as part of the country’s fifth licensing round.
According to Mozambique’s regulator, Instituto Nacional de Petroleo, the campaign will see Eni explore for oil and gas 605km south of the Rovuma Basin, where the major is developing and operating a large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, the Coral South Development which achieved first production and export in 2022.
Exploration across the southern African country’s offshore basins was last conducted by Anadarko Petroleum Corp in 2015 before the firm sold its stakes in the Block to Total Energies in a $3.9 billion transaction. Within Mozambique’s oil and gas industry, Eni is involved in the Coral Sul Floating LNG initiative; the country’s first LNG project; the Rovuma LNG development; and drilling activities in five exploration and development licenses.