Italy’s OLT Offshore LNG Toscana said companies have booked a big chunk of regasification capacities at its FSRU located off the coast between Livorno and Pisa, following the completion of a multi-year allocation processes.
OLT Offshore said in a statement on Monday that the allocation process for gas years 2022/2023 to 2032/2033 had concluded on June 10.
The FSRU operator offered the regasification capacity in slots of 155,000 cbm.
According to the statement, OLT Offshore has allocated 34 slots for each gas year starting from 2023/2024 until 2026/2027.
Overall, 83 percent of the authorized annual capacity was allocated for each gas year, equal to approximately 3.2 billion cubic meters, OLT Offshore said.
In addition, the firm said it had allocated all available capacity for the gas year 2022/2023, equal to 33 slots.
“In a very complex and uncertain international scenario, the results of the auctions represent an encouraging sign for the country’s energy supply system,” OLT Offshore said.
“Our terminal will therefore be able to continue to provide strong contribution for gas supplies for the next decade,” it said.
Almost half of LNG volumes came from US
The FSRU has a storage capacity of 137,100 cbm and a regasification capacity of 3.75 bcm a year. It sends regasified LNG to Italy’s national grid via a 36.5 kilometers long pipeline.
Italy’s Snam has a 49.07 percent stake in the LNG terminal while Igneo Infrastructure Partners owns a 48.24 percent share.
Golar LNG that provided the 137,100-cbm FSRU has a minor 2.69 percent stake in the LNG import facility.
The terminal has a Wobbe Index correction system installed onboard, that enables to correct the quality of LNG and receive almost all LNG produced worldwide, according to OLT Offshore.
Since the start of commercial operations in December 2013 and until the end of the first quarter this year, the facility received LNG from ten different countries.
A big part of the supplies or 45 percent came from the US, OLT Offshore said.
Other sources include Algeria (11 percent), Qatar (9 percent), Egypt and Nigeria (7 percent each), Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria (6 percent each), Equatorial Guinea (4 percent), Cameroon and Peru (1 percent each).
Italian LNG imports to rise
Italian LNG imports are expected to rise significantly in the future as the country looks to replace Russian gas pipeline supplies.
Besides this FSRU, Italy has Snam’s Panigaglia onshore LNG terminal and the Adriatic LNG terminal which is also offering long-term capacity.
Snam signed two Italian FSRU deals this year with Golar LNG as well.
In addition to these projects, Italy also hosts small-scale facilities such as the terminal in the port of Ravenna and the Higas terminal located on the Italian island of Sardinia.