ExxonMobil Corp. announced it will buy 25% of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Mozambique from Italy’s Eni for about $2.8b as the US oil giant expands its worldwide LNG footprint, Bloomberg reported.

Eni, which is selling stakes in a number of fields to fund development of other projects, is currently the operator of Mozambique’s Area 4 where it holds a 50% indirect stake held through Eni East Africa, Reuters informed.

The concession, where Eni discovered gas in 2011, holds as much as 85tcf of the fuel.

Under the deal, Eni will continue to lead all upstream operations in the area, while ExxonMobil will be in charge of building the LNG gas plants. However, the Italian major said it will remain in charge of building the floating LNG plant in the Coral field, which is part of Area 4.

The area 4 project envisages the construction of onshore and offshore LNG plants to export the gas to areas such as India and Asia.