LNG

Adriatic LNG, the import terminal offshore northeast Italy, reported a record year in terms of shipments and regasified volumes delivered into the Italian national grid.

The operating company, Terminale GNL Adriatico, is a gravity-based terminal that came on line in 2009 and 70-percent owned by ExxonMobil Corp.

The other minority shareholders include a subsidiary of QatarEnergy and the Italian grid operator and import terminals owner, SNAM.

“The regasification terminal located off the Veneto coast sent 8.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas into the national pipeline network, an increase of 7 percent from the previous year,,” said Adriatic LNG.

Steady cargo flow

A total of 75 LNG carriers called at the terminal last year, mainly from Qatar and the United States but also from other geographical areas, including, for the first time, Mozambique.

The volumes provided over 14 percent of natural gas consumption and confirmed itself as the third main entry source for Italian gas imports.

“The terminal therefore broke its previous best annual record, scored in 2022, when it sent 7.9 Bcm of gas into the national grid,” added the company.

Adriatic LNG noted that the results confirmed the increasing relevance of LNG in the Italian energy mix.

In 2023, total LNG imports to Italy amounted to 16.6 Bcm, a 16.8 percent increase compared with 2022.

The cargoes met 27 percent of the national natural gas needs of 61.5 Bcm.

Strategic infrastructure

For all of 2023 over 50 percent of Italian LNG imports were shipped through Adriatic LNG.

“Our terminal confirmed to be a strategic energy infrastructure for Italy and Europe,” said Alfredo Balena, Director of External Relations at Adriatic LNG.

“We can say that the 8.5 Bcm of natural gas injected by Adriatic LNG into the national grid represent an energy quantity equivalent to approximately 93 million megawatt-hours, equivalent to the total energy consumed the Veneto and Lombardy regions for a year,” stated Balena.

In total, from 2009 to 2023, 1,058 LNG carriers arrived at the regasification terminal for a total of 92 Bcm of gas sent into the national gas grid.

“The security of energy supplies in Europe and Italy is and will increasingly be based on LNG,,” Balena explained.

“The significant growth in LNG imports occurring over the last two years is linked to efforts being made to reduce dependence, and increase resilience, of the European gas system,” he concluded.

June 14 (LNGJ) - OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, the manager of the Italian floating regasification terminal “FSRU Toscana” deployed off Livorno, has published the criteria for the calculation of reserve price for the allocation of annual and multi-year regasification capacity. The capacity was offered in 155,000 cubic metres slots.

   The procedure and details on all the issues and the extension of the allocation of other future gas years are published on the OLT Offshore web site. “After the annual and multi-year auction with an expression of interest held on June 10th, 2022, any awardee of the capacity product concerning 2023/2024-2026/2027 can request the extension to or up Gas Year 2032-2033,” it added.

Adriatic LNG, the offshore import terminal owned by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, has launched a consultation for the auctioning of a potential 153 billion cubic metres of regasification capacity over the next 25 years.

Interested parties have 45 days to submit observations on products and allocation rules.

Adriatic LNG has been operating since it was deployed in 2009 on a gravity-based structure off the coast of the Veneto region.

The operating company said the subjects of the two-fold consultations are, on the one hand, the products to be allocated and, on the other hand, the amendments to the Regasification Code needed to carry out the open season.

“With the public consultation we take a further step to create one of the most important events for the entire energy market of the Mediterranean area,” said Sebastien Bumbolo, Adriatic LNG Law & Market manager.

“The latest developments in the regulatory framework implemented in Italy have new rules on the allocation of LNG regasification capacity which have already been successful in other European Countries,” added Sebastien Bumbolo.

“Adriatic LNG is able to offer to the market large volumes through long-term allocations,” he stated.

The joint venture operating company is controlled by ExxonMobil Italiana Gas and Qatar Terminal Ltd and a third shareholder is the Italian natural gas grid operator, SNAM, with a 7.3 percent stake.

Adriatic LNG has contributed to satisfying Italy’s gas security by already delivering 69 Bcm of regasified LNG into the national pipeline network.

Cargoes of LNG have been received at the Adriatic facility from eight nations, Angola, Qatar, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Equatorial Guinea, Norway, Nigeria and the US.

The company said all gas and LNG market players, both at national and international levels, have access to the Adriatic LNG proposals and can send their observations by March 22nd, 2021.

Further details are on its Web site at www.adriaticlng.it/en