LNG

Italian floating LNG terminal company, OLT Offshore LNG Toscana controlled by Italian natural gas grid and LNG terminals operator Societa Nazionale Metanodotti (SNAM), said the “FSRU Toscana” has completed the first phase of maintenance at a shipyard in Italy’s northwest port of Genoa.

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.

Oct 23 (LNGJ) - Italian major Eni became the latest company to sign a long-term LNG supply contract for volumes from the expansion being developed in the Arabian Gulf by QatarEnergy. The Eni cargoes will come from a joint venture with QatarEnergy for the development of the North Field East (NFE) project and will amount to the delivery of up to 1.1 million tonnes per annum of LNG. 

   The Milan-based company said the volumes would be delivered to the floating storage and regasification unit “FSRU Italia” currently berthed in the port of Piombino in Tuscany and deliveries would start in 2026 for a period of 27 years. “This agreement strengthens the partnership between Eni and QatarEnergy and it is a further step in the development of Eni’s integrated global LNG portfolio,” said Eni. The company is already importing around 2.15MT per annum from Qatar under a long term supply agreement signed in 2007.

Adriatic LNG, the ExxonMobil-owned company that operates the largest liquefied natural gas regasification terminal in Italy, has launched the accreditation phase for the 2023 open season aimed at operators interested in acquiring capacity.

SNAM, the Italian natural gas grid and LNG terminals operator, said gas demand in Italy in the first quarter dropped by 19.4 percent to 20.54 billion cubic metres compared with 25.47 Bcm at the same time a year ago even as more LNG cargoes were unloaded at the Panigaglia onshore terminal near Genoa and Italy’s fourth terminal was starting operations at the end of May.

OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, the Italian floating storage and regasification unit deployed offshore Tuscany, is working at almost 100 percent of its capacity less than a year after the implementation of new allocation mechanisms via auction.

April 3 (LNGJ) - OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, the Italian floating import company with a facility offshore the Mediterranean port of Livorno, said that starting from April 10 the regasification capacity of OLT will be awarded via auctions on the Platform for the Allocation of Regasification Capacity operated by the Italian power exchange management company Gestore Mercati Energetici (GME). OLT and GME have signed an accord on allocations. “This agreement regulates the relations between GME and OLT,” said OLT. “The platform will be in operation from April. OLT will launch the first monthly auction on April 10 in order to offer the regasification capacity available from May to the end of September,” it explained. OLT offshore operates the “FSRU Toscana”, moored 22 kilometres off the coast between the cities of Livorno and Pisa and connected to the Italian national gas transmission grid.