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.

Venice LNG, a company owned by Italian industrial groups Decal SpA, said it had obtained an authorization decree for the construction and operation of a small-scale LNG storage terminal in the industrial area of ​​Porto Marghera.

The permit has come from the Italian Ministry of Economic Development in agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport.

The main infrastructure will consist of a 32,000 cubic metres capacity small-scale LNG import terminal able to receive feeder ships of up to 30,000 cubic metres capacity.

Facilities will be located in an area owned by Decal, alongside the existing oil storage site along the South Industrial Canal and on restored land formerly used for a coal plant.

Venice LNG's construction phase is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2021, while operations are scheduled for start-up by around mid-2024.

“This step forward in the fuel infrastructure for road and marine transport is made possible thanks to a private investment of over €100 million ($120M) by Decal Spa Group through its subsidiary Venice LNG,” said the company.

“The project is promoted and supported by the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority and co-financed by the European Commission under the Connecting Europe Facility initiative for a total of €18.5M ($22.3M),” it added.

LNG will arrive at the Venice storage terminal by small and medium-sized LNG carriers and will be distributed on tank trucks, ISO-tanks and barges.

“Thanks to LNG, pollutants in the atmosphere and in the waters of the Venice lagoon will be drastically reduced,” stated the company.

The authorization incorporates the requirements by all the authorities involved in the procedure, including the Veneto Region, and which must be fulfilled by Venice LNG before and during the construction and operation of the coastal storage facility.

Among the requirements, there will be mitigation of dust and noise emissions during the construction phase, along with an Environmental Monitoring Plan and the implementation of procedures to limit waste production.

“We are pleased to have reached the authorization decree, since it confirms the value of our project ,” said Gian Luigi Triboldi, President and Chief Executive of Venice LNG.

“Our project went through a long technical-administrative path, involving many authorities and the local community too. Now, we are ready to give our contribution to promote the use of LNG, which plays a key role in the energy transition process,” explained the CEO.

In addition to the storage tank, the Venice project also includes a jetty and a system to allow the loading of barges and the installation of a boil-off gas management system.

About three-quarters of the volumes will be aimed at the road transport market and the balance will be sold to the ship bunkering sector.

The largest LNG facility in the region is Adriatic LNG, which imports cargoes from Qatar to be fed into the Italian natural gas transmission system.

The EU is promoting small-scale LNG distribution and more use of the fuel in trucking as part of its clean energy policy.

With the implementation of the International Maritime Organization’s 0.5 percent global sulphur cap in 2020, LNG is being put forward as the most economic and viable alternative fuel for ship owners.