Italy's Eni is about to begin the front-end engineering and design phase of its Evans Shoal gas project off Northern Australia where it wants to supply backfill gas to the Darwin liquefied natural gas plant, writes Russell Searancke.

The Italian operator plans to start the FEED work next month, said well-placed sources, and is also seeking expressions of interest from contractors related to a floating production unit to be built on a conversion basis, said well-placed sources.