Italian energy firm Snam said that its Panigaglia terminal in Liguria has regasified 1.47 bcm of LNG in the January-September period, a rise of 34.9 percent compared to 1.09 bcm in the same period last year.
In the first nine months of 2022, the Panigaglia (La Spezia) facility operated by Snam’s unit GNL Italia received 38 vessels in the period under review, 13 more ships compared to 2021.
“In April 2022, volumes regasified by GNL Italia began to increase, accompanied by a consequent increase in vessel unloading compared with the early months of 2022, a period impacted by price dynamics and, in particular, an increase in liquefied Algerian gas flows to France and Spain,” Snam said in its third-quarter report.
According to Snam, the Panigaglia LNG terminal, Italy’s oldest regasification plant, has two 50,000 cbm LNG storage tanks and a regasification capacity of 3.5 bcm per year.
In October, Italy’s Eni started providing additional volumes of LNG to the regasification terminal ahead of the 2022-2023 winter and as part of its plan to strengthen and diversify gas supplies to Italy.
Eni said the LNG supplies from Algeria and Egypt were reloaded on smaller ships at Spanish terminals for them to be compatible with the Panigaglia terminal.
The firm said the overall contribution of additional LNG volumes to Italy, thanks to the availability of regasification terminals currently under development, would exceed 2 bcm between 2022 and 2023.
It would progressively reach 7 bcm between 2023 and 2024, and would exceed 9 bcm between 2024-2025, in addition to further pipeline supplies, Eni said.
Piombino and Ravenna FSRUs
Besides the Panigaglia facility, Italy has the FSRU Toscana and the Adriatic LNG import terminal as well as the small-scale facilities such as the terminal in the port of Ravenna and the Higas terminal.
This year, Snam bought one FSRU from BW and one from Golar and also signed a deal to convert LNG carrier Golar Arctic into an FSRU.
Snam plans to employ the 2015-built FSRU Golar Tundra to serve the terminal in Piombino and the 2015-built FSRU BW Singapore to serve the facility off Ravenna.
The Italian grid operator confirmed in its quarterly report that it had received approvals for both of these projects each with a capacity of 5 bcm.
It also said that works have started on the Piombino facility.
Snam expects the Piombino FSRU terminal to reach commercial operation in May 2023, while the Ravenna facility should go online by the end of 2024.