The Congolese government and the Italian energy corporation Eni launched a $5 billion gas liquefaction project on Tuesday, with a predicted annual production of 3 million metric tons by 2025.
Italy’s strategy for reducing its dependency on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine involves increasing its capacity to export liquefied natural gas.
In August, the Italian energy corporation Eni bought a floating liquefaction facility with the goal of producing and exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Eni’s natural gas development project in the Marine XII block will meet Congo’s electricity needs by supplying both international and local markets.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Minister of Hydrocarbons, Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, said that this project will result in the country being an LNG exporter for the first time.
He said during the inauguration ceremony in Brazzaville, the Congo’s capital, that “this should place the Congo among the largest oil and gas producers in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
According to Mirko Araldi, Eni’s managing director in the country, frequent gas flaring is thought to contribute to global warming, therefore this move is in line with Eni’s objective to reduce it.
Eni is the Congo Republic’s second-largest oil operator, after only France’s Total. After 50 years of operation, it built a gas-fired power plant that serves over 70% of the country’s electrical demands.
