Italian contractor Saipem has secured a contract for Snam’s planned FSRU-based LNG import project offshore Ravenna in the Adriatic Sea.
Besides this contract, Saipem also won a contract from its biggest shareholder Eni and partner Petroci for the Baleine Phase 2 project offshore Ivory Coast.
Both of these contracts are worth 850 million euros ($911.7 million), according to a statement by Saipem.
Saipem, through a temporary association of companies with Rosetti Marino and Micoperi, won the FSRU contract from Snam Rete Gas, it said.
Moreover, the deal includes the construction of the facilities for the new floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to be located offshore Ravenna, Italy.
According to Snam, the project consists of the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) of a new offshore facility, linked to the existing one, for the docking and mooring of the FSRU.
The facility will be connected to shore via a 26” offshore pipeline 8.5 km in length, plus a 2.6 km onshore pipeline and a parallel fibre optic cable.
In addition, the shore crossing will utilize a microtunneling system to minimize environmental impacts, it said.
Saipem said that its pipelay barge Castoro 10 will execute the offshore operations.
“The new FSRU will enable an increase in Italy’s LNG import capacity, thus improving the country’s energy security thanks to the diversification of gas sources,” the firm said.
2024
Italy’s Rosetti Marino said in a separate statement that activities on the Ravenna FSRU contract will start immediately and are expected to be completed by November 2024.
Last year, Snam purchased BW LNG’s 2015-built FSRU BW Singapore for $400 million, and plans to install it off Ravenna next year.
The FSRU has a maximum storage capacity of about 170,000 cubic meters of LNG and a nominal continuous regasification capacity of about 5 billion cubic meters per year.
It currently works in Egypt and the FSRU’s charter contract with Egas expires in November 2023.
Snam already launched this year the FSRU-based LNG import terminal in the Italian port of Piombino.
The company purchased Golar Tundra with a regasification capacity of 5 bcm from Golar LNG last year for $350 million, and the unit arrived in Piombino from Singapore in March.
This is Italy’s fourth large LNG terminal and also the second FSRU-based facility.
Snam owns the Panigaglia facility and has stakes in the FSRU Toscana and the Adriatic LNG import terminal.