Cape Town (Platts)--25Feb2013/839 am EST/1339 GMT

Italy's Eni has made a new gas discovery at the Coral 3 exploration prospect, offshore Mozambique, adding at least 4 Tcf of gas in place to Area 4.

The company said the new discovery within the Mamba Complex confirms the potential of Area 4 at 75 Tcf of gas in place.

The Coral 3 delineation well, which is the eighth well drilled back to back in Area 4, encountered 117 meters of gas pay in high quality Eocene reservoir, it said.

Coral 3, drilled in 2,035 meters of water, is located approximately 5 km south of Coral 1, 15 km from Coral 2, and approximately 65 km off the Cabo Delgado coast.

Eni said it plans to drill another delineation well, Mamba South 3, in order to assess the full potential of the Mamba Complex discoveries, before moving back to exploration drilling in the southern sector of Area 4.

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Eni is the operator of Area 4 with a 70% participating interest. The other partners of the joint venture are Galp Energia, Kogas and ENH, all of which have a 10% interest.

Discoveries by Eni and the US' Anadarko confirms the Rovuma basin as a world-class natural gas province, attracting the interest of major international oil companies.

Given the size of the discoveries, Eni and Anadarko said they are prepared to take on additional partners.

Eni last week said it hopes to take a final investment decision on developing its gas reserves by 2014 and is open to farming down part of its stake to new equity partners.

Anadarko CEO Al Walker said in early February that the company was looking to sell 10% of its 36.5% stake in Area 1, where it has estimated 35-65 Tcf of recoverable reserves.

The companies have agreed to unite their neighboring fields and build onshore liquefaction facilities, with first production expected from 2017/2018. The companies believe the country's gas reserves can support up to 6 LNG trains and are lined up to invest as much as $5 billion-8 billion over the next five years on the projects.

The final investment decision is expected on a two-train LNG plant in the fourth quarter of 2013, which would see construction commence in 2014.

Mozambique is also planning to hold a licensing round in June this year.

The blocks are likely to include the highly prospective Rovuma Basin.

--Jacinta Moran, jacinta_moran@platts.com
--Edited by James Leech, james_leech@platts.com

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