Italian energy company Eni has finally sanctioned the world’s first ultra-deepwater floating LNG (FLNG) project, Coral, offshore Mozambique.

The 3.4-million tonnes per annum capacity Coral FLNG unit will be used to develop the Mamba gas discovery in the Rovuma Basin, which lies about 48 km off Mozambique.

Separately, Samsung Heavy Industries said Friday that it had clinched the $2.5bn deal to build the FLNG facility along with France’s Technip and Japan’s JGC.