Floating LNG has shifted from a niche concept to a core pillar of Africa’s gas development strategy as governments seek faster, lower-risk ways to monetise offshore reserves amid security, infrastructure, and fiscal constraints. By integrating production, liquefaction, storage, and loading on a single offshore platform, floating LNG eliminates reliance on extensive onshore infrastructure, cuts development timelines by up to half, and reduces upfront capital requirements compared with traditional land-based LNG plants.
Offshore processing significantly improves risk management by avoiding exposure to onshore security threats, community disputes, and cross-border pipeline dependencies, while maintaining direct access to global shipping routes. This advantage has driven rapid adoption across West, East, and Central Africa, where floating projects are enabling the commercial development of gas fields that were previously stranded or uneconomic.
Africa is now the world’s fastest-growing region for floating LNG capacity, with operational projects in Mozambique, Cameroon, and the Republic of Congo, and new developments advancing in Senegal–Mauritania, Nigeria, and Gabon. These modular facilities allow governments to phase investments, generate early revenue, and align gas development with domestic power generation, industrial growth, and export market opportunities.
While floating LNG faces limitations around capacity scale, weather exposure, and local content impacts, its ability to bypass infrastructure bottlenecks and operate securely in volatile environments makes it a critical enabler of Africa’s energy transition. As natural gas continues to play a bridging role alongside renewables, offshore processing is positioning the continent as a flexible supplier to both domestic and global markets.
