Italy’s long-standing floating storage and regasification unit has been given permission to beef up its regasification capacity.
Operator OLT Offshore LNG Toscana said today that it has received authorisation from the country Ministry of Environment and Energy to increase the capacity of the FSRU Toscana (converted 2013) to about 5 bn cbm per year.
The unit, which is permanently anchored about 22 kms off the coast between Livorno and Pisa, is currently operating with 3.75 bn cbm.
OLT the FSRU will also be able to receive up to 122 small LNG carriers per year.
Technical verification work on the capacity increase was carried out in August 2022.
In its 2022 Sustainability Report OLT said: “The increase of the regasification capacity does not involve plant changes, but a greater utilisation of the existing plant through the increase of the quantities of LNG discharged and regasified; no changes in the number of berths of LNG carriers are needed compared to those currently authorised nor changes in the size of authorised vessels.”
The report details that OLT’s CO2 equivalent emissions rose in 2022 to 88,572, up from 74,100 a year earlier. But it recorded a lower greenhouse gas emissions intensity rate of 0.024 tons of CO2 equivalent per 1,000 cbm, compared to 0.055 tons CO2eq/1,000 cbm in 2021.
FSRU Toscana, which started commercial operations in December 2013, can accept LNG carriers of up to 180,000-cbm.
The unit is connected to the Snam national gas pipeline network and covers about 5% of the national requirement.
In 2022 48% of the shipments handled by the terminal originated from the US.
Snam holds a 49.07% stake in OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, global asset manager Igneo Infrastructure Partners 48.24% and Golar LNG 2.69%.
In March Italy’s second FSRU, the 170,000-cbm FSRU Golar Tundra (built 2015) arrived in port of Piombino as the country moved to bolster its energy security post Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Aside from these two FSRUs, Italy boasts two more LNG import terminals — the land-based Panigaglia terminal and the gravity-based Adriatic LNG.
In 2022 Snam paid $400m to buy a BW LNG-controlled FSRU which will be located off the coast near Ravenna in north-eastern Italy in 2024.
The company also bought the 140,000-cbm Golar Arctic (built 2003) to convert into a regas unit for Sardinia.
