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BW Singapore set from DP World Drydocks shipyard in Dubai to Italy on November 25 after undergoing extensive repairs and modifications.
In December last year, Snam completed the purchase of BW LNG’s 2015-built FSRU BW Singapore for about $400 million.
Snam recently said that a new mooring platform off Italy’s Ravenna is almost ready to welcome the FSRU by the end of this year.
According to a statement by Snam on Monday, the FSRU has reached the Fincantieri shipyard in Palermo, where it will stay for just over a month for technical finishing operations, specifically mechanical, instrumental, and electrical work and fine-tuning of some equipment.
Snam said these activities are aimed at preparing the regasification unit for the following gassing and cooling operations planned at the LNG terminal in Cartagena, Spain.
“Then, the FSRU is expected to arrive in Ravenna in February for connection to the mooring deck, which was completed and installed last November, for receiving of additional amounts of LNG, and the final verification activities before commissioning scheduled for early April 2025,” Snam said.
Diversification
Stefano Venier, CEO of Snam said the arrival of the FSRU in Italian waters is a “further step forward in the gas supply diversification strategy launched in 2022, which has helped the country to successfully tackle the energy crisis following the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, also through the use of LNG.”
With the commissioning of BW Singapore, Italy’s total regasification capacity will rise to 28 billion cubic meters, equivalent to the volumes imported by pipeline from Russia in 2021, before the Russian-Ukrainian war, according to Snam.
Snam’s other FSRU-based LNG import terminal in the Italian port of Piombino recently received its 50th cargo since its launch last year.
The 170,000-cbm FSRU, Italis LNG, previously known as Golar Tundra, received its first commercial shipment from Eni in July last year.
Eni booked regasification capacity at the FSRU-based facility as part of its strategy to diversify LNG supplies to Italy through its internationally produced equity gas.
In April, the unit received its first LNG cargo from Eni’s Congo FLNG project.
In addition to these two FSRU-based terminals, Snam holds significant stakes in all the regulated LNG regasification terminals currently operating in Italy, including the Panigaglia terminal, the Adriatic LNG terminal. and the OLT FSRU Toscana terminal.