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The 2022-built 174,000-cbm, Elisa Aquila, owned by France LNG Shipping and chartered by Edison, delivered the maiden shipment from Louisiana to Snam’s 170,000-cbm FSRU, Italis LNG, in Piombino.
According to a statement by Snam, the LNG carrier unloaded at the Piombino terminal about 165,000 cbm of LNG to be regasified and introduced into the national network.
Under the long-term contract with Venture Global, which was signed in 2017, Edison will offtake 1.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year (equivalent to 1 million tons of LNG) from the Calcasieu Pass plant, using its two 174,000-cbm LNG carriers, for a total of 14 cargoes per year.
With the launch of the new supply route, Edison is strengthening its position on the Italian market, through a broad and diversified portfolio of long-term supplies, the firm noted.
Today, Edison imports about 14 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year into Italy, with import contracts from Qatar (6.4 bcm), Libya (4.4 bcm), Algeria (1 bcm), Azerbaijan (1 bcm) and the US (1.4 bcm, meeting 23 percent of domestic demand.
Arbitration
Edison said last year that it does not expect to start receiving contracted supplies from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass plant until at least April 2025.
Calcasieu Pass produced its first LNG on January 19, 2022, moving from FID to LNG production in 29 months, and the first commissioning cargo left the facility on March 1, 2022.
Last month, Venture Global launched commercial operations at its Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana, some 68 months from its final investment decision and 38 months after production start.
Besides Edison, customers of the Calcasieu pass facility include Shell, BP, Repsol, Galp, PGNiG, now part of Orlen, Sinopec’s unit Unipec, and CNOOC.
Energy giants Shell and BP and other firms are in an dispute with Venture Global over the launch of commercial operations at the facility and they previously launched arbitration proceedings against Venture Global.
“Edison informs that the arbitration initiated at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) in London, for violation of the contractual terms by Venture Global, continues,” the firm said on Wendesday.
“In fact, in 2023 the company took legal action given the continuing delays in the start of LNG supplies by the American operator,” Edison said.