LNG

SNAM, the Italian gas gid operator and liquefied natural gas import terminals owner, said it was moving forward on plans for a fifth LNG regasification facility at the Adriatic port of Ravenna.

SNAM has already started the construction of the associated facilities for the new Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) to be deployed at Ravenna.

A meeting in Ravenna involving SNAM Chief Executive Stefano Venier, the utility’s Chief Operating Officer Massimo Derchi as well as the Mayor of Ravenna, Michele de Pascale, as part of a public conference outlined progress on bringing the FSRU “BW Singapore” to Ravenna.

The FSRU is the second purchased by SNAM to improve Italy’s energy security and will be operational by the end of 2024.

The ship will provide the country with an additional 5 billion cubic metres of gas, in addition to those already supplied by the FSRU “Golar Tundra” which has been operational on Italy’s West Coast port of Piombino in Tuscany since July 2023.

Municipal benefits

SNAM said that Ravenna would also benefit from hosting the FSRU and helping with Italy’s energy security by having backing for town and regional projects.

“These works will enable the Municipality to carry out significant interventions in various areas, from urban regeneration to sustainable mobility, from reforestation to energy saving with a total commitment of €10 million (€10.7M),” said SNAM.

“At the peak of activities, more than 1,200 people will be employed, involving over 100 suppliers from the province of Ravenna and the Emilia Romagna Region, with contracts assigned to local companies in the Ravenna area amounting to over €300 million ($320M),” the company added.

“During the Ravenna conference, SNAM also provided an update on progress of the works for the first carbon-capture and storage (CCS) project, which will make the Ravenna hub one of the world's largest sites for CO₂ storage and the largest in the Mediterranean,” the company added.

Built in 2015, the “BW Singapore” will be able to store 170,000 cubic metres of LNG, regasify it then have it transferred into a new pipeline connected to the connection point with the National Gas Pipeline Network located around 42 kilometres (26 miles) from the FSRU mooring point.

Bunkering

Ravenna is already the location of a small-scale LNG bunkering station established under the European Union's clean fuel policies.

Spanish LNG terminals and gas grid operator Enagás and Italian utility company Edison are among the shareholders in the small-scale facility serving the LNG trucking and ship bunkering sectors.

In addition to the Piombino FSRU terminal on the west Coast, SNAM already operates the onshore Panigaglia LNG facility on the northwest coast near Genoa and which has been in service since 1969.

The grid operator also has a controlling stake in the “FSRU Toscana” moored off the West Coast Italian port of Livorno.

The new FSRU facility at Ravenna will be in the same area as the Adriatic LNG terminal

Adriatic LNG terminal is majority-owned by US major ExxonMobil and with QatarEnergy also a shareholder.

The Adriatic terminal is a gravity-based structure located 15 km (9.3 miles) off the Veneto coastline and SNAM is a 7.3 percent shareholder in the facility.

Adriatic LNG, the operator of the largest LNG regasification terminal in Italy, said it had a positive conclusion to the 2021 open season and was preparing for next year’s process from May 2022.

The terminal, located 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) off the Veneto coastline, covered the allocation by tender of regasification capacity for a total amount of 2 billion standard cubic metres over a period of about three years.

“After a long and comprehensive public consultation process that began in early February 2021, the tender was conducted in a manner similar to those used by the aggressive competitors of LNG terminal operators in Europe with some notable improvements to benefit competition in the gas market,” said Adriatic LNG.

“Reliability, efficiency, and the fact that it is the only LNG regasification terminal in Italy capable of receiving almost all classes of LNG carriers, with a capacity ranging from 65,000 cubic metres up to 217,000 cubic metres capacity, make Adriatic LNG's service particularly attractive to national and international operators, improving competition in the Italian gas market,” it added.

Auctions

Adriatic LNG’s open season culminated in a series of non-binding and binding auctions between interested operators between November 26th and into December 2021.

The terminal has been on line since autumn 2009 and is a private operator which enables cargo imports amounting to about 10 percent of the national gas consumption of Italy.

Adriatic LNG is co-controlled by ExxonMobil Italiana Gas and Qatar Terminal Ltd, a subsidiary of QatarEnergy, while Italian gas network operator SNAM has a 7.3 percent shareholding.

It has so far handled more than 800 cargoes at its gravity-based structure facilities.

The terminal includes two LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of 125,000 cubic metres.

“In this regard, it should be noted that the project to increase the regasification capacity of the Adriatic LNG terminal from 8 to 9 billion cubic metres a year has been approved by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the authorisation is now in the finalisation phase,” explained Adriatic LNG.

“The increase in regasification capacity at the Adriatic terminal will be achieved through the optimisation of the operating conditions of the infrastructure, without any structural changes to the current configuration,” added the company.

In the open season, Adriatic LNG said it offered flexibility and gave the opportunity to operators to submit, for certain types of products and within specific limits, personalized bids by requesting the reduction of duration and/or annual volumes.

Adriatic LNG noted that in a gas market in constant evolution and increasingly ready to offer price opportunities and delivery flexibility, the company invites interested operators to consult its website for the short-term regasification service offer and to participate in the open season 2022 that will start at the end of May 2022.

The eight supplying countries so far to the Adriatic facility have been Qatar, Angola, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Equatorial Guinea, Norway, Nigeria and the US.