Republic of Congo Offers Lukoil To Get into Another Gas Project

July 12—The Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) is offering Russia’s Lukoil, which already participates in the development of the undersea natural gas project Marine XII, a role in another big gas project, Marine VI, as Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua told Interfax this week. Italy’s ENI is the operator of the Marine XII project, with a stake of 65%; another 10% is owned by state company Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo. Lukoil bought a 25% stake in Marine XII from New Age M12 Holdings Limited in 2019 for $800 million.

Interfax notes that the Republic of Congo joined the ranks of LNG exporters in February 2024 with gas produced at Marine XII on the Tango floating LNG (FLNG) plant. Under the project, Congo LNG plans to increase the reserves of Marine XII and gradually expand gas liquefaction capacity to a plateau of about 4.5 billion cubic meters per year.

It is notable, as a shame, that Europe is the main destination of LNG shipped out of the region, at high costs and prices. Congolese natural gas could be exported to Central Africa at lower, more affordable costs and prices, via pipelines going there from the southern Atlantic coast of Congo. These pipelines, however, first have to be built—a potential grand project for a joint effort of European companies like ENI, Siemens, Mannesmann, and Chinese companies. Central African countries are in urgent need of energy for their development.

Last November, ENI launched the hull of Congo’s second FLNG plant, Nguya, at the Chinese Wison shipyards. The new FLNG will have a liquefaction capacity of 2.4 million tons per year and will join the existing Tango capacity of 0.6 million tons per year, bringing the total LNG capacity of the Congo LNG project to 3 million tons per year by the end of 2025.