Golar LNG has announced that its Cameroon floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project has reached a major milestone with the final approval by all parties of the Gas Convention for the project.

The FLNG is expected to be commissioned in second quarter, 2017 and would be installed and operated in Cameroon waters offshore of Kribi.

The final investment decision was signed Wednesday between Cameroon's state owned oil and gas company Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), Golar LNG, and Perenco.

The binding tolling agreement having already been agreed between Golar and Perenco, is expected to be formally approved by the 25% upstream partner SNH imminently, Golar said. This agreement establishes the terms under which Golar shall provide liquefaction, storage, and off-loading services to SNH and Perenco as upstream joint venture partners.

The FLNG project is based on the allocation of 500 Bcf of natural gas reserves from offshore Kribi fields, which will be exported to global markets via the GoFLNG facility Hilli, now under construction at Keppel Shipyard in Singapore. Golar will provide the liquefaction facilities and services under a tolling agreement to SNH and Perenco as parties of the upstream joint venture.

It is anticipated that the allocated reserves will be produced at a rate of 1.2 million tons of LNG per annum, representing approx. 50% of the vessel's nameplate production capacity, over an approximate eight year period.