Six-Well Campaign Opens for Eni's Coral North FLNG Off Mozambique

By Priya Raman

Drilling began November 1, 2026, on up to six development wells for the Coral North FLNG project in Mozambique's Rovuma Basin, opening a roughly ten-month campaign that Eni says will feed a floating liquefaction unit slated to start up in 2028.

The drillship SAIPEM 12000 is on contract for the work. Its operator, ENH-Saipem Drilling Company, marks a first: a locally owned entity is taking direct operational responsibility for offshore drilling in Mozambican waters. That's a genuine milestone. It's also a promise that depends on execution, and no performance record exists yet.

What does the drilling program involve?

The campaign splits into two phases. Phase one covers four production wells. The remaining two wells follow in a second development stage, Eni said.

Mozambique's National Petroleum Institute (INP), the upstream regulator, puts the campaign at 270 days. Eni's own guidance says about ten months for drilling plus completion (installing downhole and seabed equipment that controls flow to the production system). The two figures broadly agree. Neither accounts for weather or technical downtime, which offshore campaigns rarely escape.

• Vessel: SAIPEM 12000, operated by ENH-Saipem Drilling Company
• Start date: November 1, 2026
• Duration: 270 days per INP; roughly ten months per Eni
• Location: northern sector of the Coral field, Rovuma Basin, off Cabo Delgado

The takeaway: the wells are sanctioned, funded and spudded — this is execution, not appraisal-stage talk.

How did regulators clear the vessel?

The SAIPEM 12000 arrived in Cabo Delgado province on October 25, 2026. Official inspections started two days later, covering vessel operations, worker safety and environmental protection. National agencies responsible for health, labor and emergency response also took part.

Support facilities came first. Between October 13 and 15, authorities inspected the logistics bases at Pemba, which will supply materials and services to the offshore campaign. INP teams led both reviews. No inspection findings or conditions were disclosed. Absence of reported issues is not the same as absence of issues.

Where does the FLNG unit stand?

The floating liquefaction facility under construction in South Korea had reached 72% overall progress by end-October, the INP reported. The Mozambican government approved the project in April 2025.

The unit is designed to process 3.55 million tonnes per year of LNG (liquefied natural gas) directly offshore, chilling the gas to liquid and transferring it to carriers — no onshore plant required. Note the source refers separately to an FSOS (floating storage and offloading) facility under construction; the copy is loose on scope, and readers should treat the unit descriptions cautiously.

Coral North follows Coral South FLNG, the basin's first producing gas development, onstream since 2022. Coral South has shipped more than 175 LNG cargoes to international markets, according to Eni. With Coral North added, Eni expects combined Mozambican LNG capacity of roughly 7 million tonnes per year. That is a forecast, not a produced volume.

Area 4 partners: Eni, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Mozambique's National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH), KOGAS and XRG.

The takeaway: 72% complete is real progress, but 2028 startup still has a full drilling campaign and a fleet delivery between here and first gas.

What did Valaris book?

Valaris secured new contracts and extensions worth roughly $600 million through August 2026. Its backlog rose to $4.8 billion, up from $4.6 billion.

The headline item is a three-year, approximately $290 million deal with BP for the Mad Dog and Thunder Horse platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Other work includes:

• Two wells for PETRONAS offshore Suriname
• A $25 million extension with BP in Egypt
• Three-year extensions, via the ARO Drilling joint venture with Aramco, for five platforms in the Middle East

Deepwater dayrates aren't disclosed, so margin quality can't be judged from the headline.

What is Fugro doing in UK wind?

Fugro won a contract from Cadeler for subsea inspections at the 960-MW East Anglia TWO wind farm off the UK. Work starts in early 2027 across 64 turbine-foundation sites. Fugro will deploy an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) to check foundation placement and gather seabed data.

At Hornsea 3, Fugro is already supporting installation of 197 foundations, using InclinoCam for centimeter-level measurement of tilt and alignment. East Anglia TWO, once complete, should power about 950,000 homes.

Why is Jadestone back at 19,000 boe/d?

Jadestone Energy restored production to roughly 19,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day after reactivating four offshore fields off Western Australia. The fix required repairing a subsea connection and reconnecting the Okha floating production unit.

Nearly all wells are back online. Current output is about 8,000 bpd of oil, of which roughly 2,700 bpd is Jadestone's share — it holds 33.33%, with Woodside Energy as operator. In Malaysia, PenMal production is beating expectations and the Akatara facility has run at 96% availability since April. In Vietnam, Jadestone is negotiating the Nam Du/U Minh gas development, targeting final investment decision (FID, the sanction that commits capital) before end-2026.

What happened offshore Egypt?

Maritime Developments (MDL) completed subsea works for Oceaneering International in Egypt's Mediterranean waters. The job replaced a damaged submarine cable and installed a new pipeline to restore production capacity at two oil fields. MDL used the vessel Energy Savanah, installed underwater connection systems, fabricated a special handling structure for a cable component, and coordinated the work from its Peterhead, Scotland base.

Watch item: the Coral North drilling schedule against the Korean yard's delivery timetable, with first gas targeted for 2028 — and whether ENH-Saipem Drilling's debut campaign holds to 270 days.