The National Petroleum Institute (INP) announced, this Monday, the arrival of the floating platform for natural gas exploration in national waters.

A statement from the INP states that work is now underway to certify the heliport for landing and takeoff of helicopters that will carry the service teams.

The floating platform will be installed in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin, in the Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique.

The 432-meter-long infrastructure departed from the shipyards of Samsung's industrial division in Geoje, South Korea, on November 15 of last year and sailed through the Indian Ocean off the coast of that province.

The infrastructure will be connected to six wells and will extract the gas to an onboard plant that will cool and liquefy it, so that it can be transported by freighters that are filled up right there, side by side, on the high seas, and then take the fuel to the destination countries for electricity generation, heating, or other purposes.

The platform has storage tanks on the hull and 13 modules above them, including a liquefaction plant, an eight-story module where 350 people can live, and a helicopter pad.

"The arrival of this [platform] is in line with the schedule approved by the Government of Mozambique, and is therefore a notable milestone in the implementation of this project, whose Final Investment Decision was made in June 2017, with production expected to begin by mid-2022," INP adds.

Area 4 is operated by Mozambique Rovuma Venture (MRV), a joint venture co-owned by ExxonMobil, Eni and CNPC (China), which holds a 70% participating interest in the concession contract.

Galp, KOGAS (South Korea) and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (Mozambique) each hold stakes of 10%.