LNG

The Italian Port of Piombino in northwest Italy, located opposite the island of Elba, is facing further delays to host one of two floating storage and regasification units purchased by Italy’s grid and LNG terminals operator SNAM.

An Italian administrative court has postponed to July 5 a decision over a case being pursued by local opponents of the Piombino FSRU.

SNAM has plans to deploy the 154,950 cubic metres capacity FSRU “Golar Tundra” at Piombina.

However, some members of Piombino's municipal administration filed a legal challenge in late 2022 against the government-backed project, part of Italy’s plan to support the European Union’s replacement of Russian pipeline gas with LNG deliveries from nations such as the US, Qatar, Algeria and Egypt.

The government-appointed commissioner for the FSRU project, Eugenio Giani, had previously issued a statement saying he hoped to have authorization from the local municipality by the end of October, 2022, though instead they raised a challenge.

Ideal FSRU site

Commissioner Giani has said that Piombina was an ideal site for an FSRU with its under-used jetty and nearby pipeline gas infrastructure connections.

He has noted that there was no other place in that region of Italy where there was a “substantially unused jetty of 300 metres in length” and pipeline links.

The Piombina FSRU and the second SNAM FSRU would be Italy’s fourth and fifth LNG import terminals after the onshore facility at Panigaglia near Genoa, another FSRU offshore the port of Livorno and the Adriatic LNG facility, an offshore gravity-based structure on the east coast.

The second SNAM FSRU is the 170,000 cubic metres capacity “BW Singapore”. The vessel was purchased by SNAM and is currently bound by a charter agreement with a third party until November 2023.

According to SNAM the “BW Singapore” could be deployed eventually in the upper Adriatic Sea, close to the Port of Ravenna where there is already a small-scale onshore LNG fuel terminal and other petroleum storage infrastructure.

Italian natural gas network operator Snam, one of Europe’s leading energy infrastructure companies and operator of two LNG import terminals, has entered the Israeli market with small-scale LNG and green hydrogen accords.