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Snam said in a statement that it has signed an agreement with the shareholders of Higas to initiate a period of exclusive assessment and negotiation regarding the potential acquisition of 100 percent of the company’s share capital, as well as the expansion and conversion of the current coastal storage facility into an FSRU-based facility.
Higas, the owner of the small-scale facility which features six horizontal low-pressure cryogenic type C tank storage tanks with a total capacity of 10,800 cbm, was spun off from Avenir in October 2024.
Norway’s Stolt-Nielsen now fully owns Avenir after it bought stakes from Golar LNG and Hoegh family holding company Aequitas.
Once finalized, the Higas transaction would enable the injection of regasified natural gas from the future Oristano FSRU into the upcoming natural gas transmission network which will serve the industrial and thermoelectric districts in central-southern Sardinia, as well as end-users in the provinces of Cagliari, Oristano, Medio Campidano, and Sulcis Iglesiente, Snam said.
The new FSRU would also support the supply of natural gas volumes necessary for the methanization of Sardinia, while increasing storage capacity by approximately ten times with respect to current levels, it said.
Hoegh Evi to work with Snam
Norwegian FSRU player and Higas shareholder, Höegh Evi, said in a separate statement that it will collaborate with Snam on the new floating LNG terminal in Sardinia.
Hoegh Evi will provide support with the engineering, construction, and commissioning of a tailored floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), which will be an integral part of the future terminal.
“As a proud shareholder in Higas, we look forward to working with the teams from Higas and Snam to unlock LNG and natural gas access to the island of Sardinia in support of a diversified energy system in Italy,” the company said.
Snam’s LNG business
Snam holds significant stakes in all the regulated LNG regasification terminals currently operating in Italy, including the Adriatic LNG terminal and the OLT FSRU Toscana terminal.
In April, Snam launched commercial operations at its FSRU-based LNG import facility in Italy’s Ravenna.
The 2015-built 170,000-cbm FSRU BW Singapore is moored 8.5 kilometres offshore Ravenna.
Such as the 170,000-cbm FSRU Italis LNG, previously known as Golar Tundra, which operates in Piombino, BW Singapore has an annual regasification capacity of 5 billion cubic meters.
With this unit, Italy’s total regasification capacity rose to 28 billion cubic meters.
Snam recently said that Italy received over 160 LNG cargoes from January to September this year, as the country’s LNG imports continue to rise.
