OLT Offshore LNG Toscana is taking its floating storage and regasification unit FSRU Toscana out of service for seven months to undergo repairs to its anchoring system.
The unit’s owning and management company said the FSRU Toscana, which has a maximum authorised regasification capacity of 5bn cbm a year, will undergo extraordinary maintenance at a shipyard, resulting in a shutdown of its plant.
This is scheduled to begin from the start of April and be completed by the end of October.
Snam and Igneo Infrastructure Partners-controlled OLT explained that it took the decision to go ahead with the work as a result of technical monitoring activities.
The company said it decided to carry out “an intervention”. This aims to replace the bearing of the FSRU’s anchoring system which is designed and built to allow the vessel to rotate around its geostationary turret that is permanently anchored to the seabed.
OLT said: “Procedures are currently underway to schedule the suspension of operations and proceed with the bearing replacement work.”
The company added that it has set up “appropriate control and monitoring systems” for the anchoring system and at present conditions allow the full operation of the terminal without any safety and environmental impact.
The FSRU, which is moored about 22 km off the coast between Livorno and Pisa and connected to the grid by pipeline, started commercial operations in December 2013 and has now been on site for over 10 years.
