Tor Olav Troim-led Golar LNG has scooped EUR 269m job to supply a floating storage and regasification unit to Italian energy company Snam for the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
Golar said its lone steam turbine vessel, the 140,000-cbm LNG carrier Golar Arctic (built 2003), will undergo a two-year conversion into an FSRU once it receives a notice-to-proceed from Snam.
The shipowner said the contract price includes the capital expenditure for the conversion of the vessel into an FSRU with a storage capacity for up to 140,000-cbm.
The unit will be installed in the port area of Portovesme, in Sardinia, as part of a project to supply the island with energy.
“Further to the full conversion of the vessel, the FSRU will be sold to the Snam Group,” Golar said.
In a results briefing in February Golar said it was looking at either selling the ship, chartering it out or converting it into an FSRU as it would be “highly disadvantaged” under incoming emissions regulations.
Snam has been working on the FSRU project for some time.
In December Snam senior vice president for LNG Elio Ruggeri told this publication that the company was ready to award a contract for this FSRU but declined to name the vessel involved.
Separately, Snam is seeking a 30,000-cbm LNG carrier to supply the Portovesme terminal in the south of Sardinia.
In May TradeWinds reported that Snam is on the hunt for a second FSRU for Sardinia. The company has sent out a requirement to shipowners for a 25,000-cbm regas unit for deployment in Porto Torres in the north of the island.
Snam has been appointed by the Italian government to develop the Portovesme project.
The company plans to ship in LNG cargoes from Italy’s two LNG terminals — OLT Offshore Toscana’s Livorno FSRU, the 137,000-cbm FSRU Toscana (built 2013); and the onshore Panagalia LNG facility.
The Portovesme import terminal to the southwest of the island would provide gas to restart Eurallumina’s existing aluminium works and convert an Enel-controlled power plant from coal to gas.
Ruggeri also said in December that there is an opportunity for an onshore import facility on the central west coast of the island at Oristano.
The network of LNG import terminals dubbed the “Sardinia virtual pipeline project” will allow the island to buy Italian gas.
Under the plan, the new facilities are due to be in operation by 2025 to dovetail with the planned phase-out of other fuels.
