Weeks after the Final Investment Decision (FID), uncertainty around the financial closure for Eni’s Coral North FLNG remains, and a growing list of financial institutions have confirmed they will not provide finance for the project. 

Coral North FLNG, in the Rovuma Basin of northern Mozambique, reached FID on October 2nd and these weeks are crucial for the consortium led by ENI to get the financial closure. If the project manages to reach financial closure soon, it may be completed ahead of TotalEnergies' Mozambique LNG that, according to news reports, has decided to lift its force majeure after more than four years. 

However, civil society organisations from around the world, gathered in the “Say No! To Gas in Mozambique” coalition, urged financial institutions on several occasions to commit to not supporting the controversial Coral North FLNG or any other gas project in Mozambique. In response, in recent months, several banks confirmed they are not backing the project. 

Italy’s UniCredit, the Dutch bank ABN AMRO, and three French banks BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, all financiers of the operational twin project Coral South FLNG, have policies restricting oil and gas financing or a business strategy in place that will prevent them from providing finance to the new project. More recently, First Rand Group, which includes Rand Merchant Bank, has also confirmed it is not financing the floating LNG platform. 

Construction of the floating platform components for Coral North FLNG has been proceeding apace for months, even before the FID on the project was announced. The financial framework presents no details despite the FID being signed, which is unusual, according to analysis of previous LNG project financing deals.

“It lends room to the hypothesis that, compared to Coral South FLNG, ENI could have increased its equity share and is seeking less debt financing on the market. Such a change in the financial framework could entail additional potential economic and financial risks,” Susanna De Guio from ReCommon says.

Coral North FLNG is amongst the projects that contribute to the trend of ultra-deepwater short-term expansion plans surpassing historical production. These are now driving 21% of global offshore LNG expansion, according to GOGEL 2025 data. As shown by the IEA in its Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) scenario from 2022 to date, this trend runs counter to the urgent and meaningful actions needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and the benchmark committed to in the Paris Agreement 10 years ago, under discussion again at the current COP 30.

An investigation published by ReCommon last March shows that the Coral South FLNG project has been involved in numerous flaring incidents since it began operating in 2022, which have not been adequately reported by Eni. If built as its replica, the Coral North floating platform potentially will have similar greenhouse gas flaring emissions issues, as well as significant environmental and climate impacts. According to the report, financial institutions backing the project would face associated risks.

The vessel would aim to produce 3.6 million tonnes of LNG per year and no long-term purchase agreements have been made public up to now. Even TotalEnergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanné admitted at the Milan TechGas summit that LNG production is risking oversupply. Furthermore, independent analysis of contracts, bilateral agreements and international treaties indicates that Mozambique carries an unfair burden for the risks and associated costs for all the gas projects in the Rovuma Basin gas fields. The build restart of Mozambique LNG depends on agreement from the Mozambican government, and there are high concerns that the additional $4.5 billion costs incurred as a result of the delays will be transferred to Mozambique. 

Kete Fumo from Justiça Ambiental says, “The Coral North Project is yet another venture in the Rovuma Basin that will not bring significant economic benefits or developmental opportunities to the Mozambican people. The projects make use of tax avoidance mechanisms, unfair contracts and investor protection clauses that limit Mozambique’s revenues and bargaining power. At the same time, there has been an increase in militarization in the Mozambique Channel, a situation that has put at risk the security and livelihoods of local fishing communities. This military presence restricts traditional community access to fishing areas, worsening their living conditions and deepening social inequality in the region.”

The civil society organisations that reached out to potential supporters of Coral North FLNG are urging these banks to reduce uncertainty from their side by publicly ruling out finance for the Coral North FLNG project. More broadly, banks must adopt comprehensive policies to end all financial services for new LNG projects, associated methane carriers, and LNG export developers.