Eni, through its joint venture company Azule Energy, has inaugurated the New Gas Consortium (NGC) gas treatment plant in Soyo, northern Angola. 

The facility is said to be Angola’s first non-associated gas development. 

It comes with a processing capacity of approximately 400 million standard cubic feet per day of gas and 20,000 barrels per day of condensate. 

The gas is sourced from the offshore Quiluma and Maboqueiro fields, treated, and then supplied to the Angola LNG plant for export and domestic consumption. 

Angola’s President, João Gonçalves Lourenço, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas Diamantino Azevedo, and Angola’s National Oil and Gas Agency (ANPG) chairman, Paulino Jeronimo, attended the inauguration ceremony. 

The NGC project was operated by Eni before the formation of Azule Energy, a 50:50 joint venture with bp and now the operator of the NGC. 

Commissioning of the gas treatment plant was achieved 24 months after the ground-breaking ceremony in October 2023 and six months ahead of the sanctioned schedule. 

Azule Energy holds a 37.4% interest with the other consortium partners: Cabinda Gulf Oil Company with a 31% share, Sonangol E&P with 19.8% and TotalEnergies with 11.8%. ANPG serves as the National Concessionaire. 

Eni said the NGC project supports energy diversification and responsible resource development in Angola. 

The project also promotes growth in other key sectors such as fertiliser production for agriculture. 

Last month, Eni finalised an agreement with Argentina’s state-owned YPF to advance a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Vaca Muerta field in northern Patagonia, Argentina.  

The agreement was formalised after Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi met with Argentina’s President, Javier Milei, in Buenos Aires to discuss existing and future projects.  

After the meeting, Descalzi and YPF’s president and CEO, Horacio Marin, signed the final technical project description for the LNG phase of the Argentina LNG project.