Italy’s OLT Offshore LNG Toscana said companies have booked all of the offered regasification capacities at its FSRU located off the coast between Livorno and Pisa until 2027.
In June last year, OLT Offshore allocated 34 slots for each gas year starting from 2023/2024 until 2026/2027.
The firm launched a new expression of interest in February. It offered regasification slots of 155,000 cbm for the period from 2024/2025 up to 2033/2034.
OLT Offshore said in a statement on Friday it held annual and multi-year auctions on April 19 and 20.
Thanks to the results of these auctions, the regasification capacity of 3.75 bcm per year (currently authorized) has been fully allocated until gas year 2026/2027,” the FSRU operator said.
According to OLT Offshore, the firm awarded 7 slots for each gas gear starting from 2024/2025 until 2033/2034.
Also, the awardees have the priority, no later than September 30, 2026, for purchasing capacity for the following gas years at the same allocation price of the product and for the same number of slots awarded, it said.
“The effective allocation of regasification capacity associated with the gas years starting from 2033/2034 is subject to the actual decision of OLT to extend the useful life of the terminal that will be communicated to the requesting user by the end of the gas year 2028/2029,” the firm said.
Authorization for capacity boost
OLT Offshore’s managing director, Giovanni Giorgi, said that the FSRU is contributing the maximum capacity to the country’s energy supply.
“In order to cope with the European energy emergency, we have requested during 2022 to increase the authorized regasification capacity to 5 billion standard cubic meters per year,” he said.
Giorgi said that the company expects to receive final authorization “in the coming weeks”.
He added that this will allow OLT Offshore to make new slots available for future gas years.
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 FSRU, has a minor 2.69 percent stake in the LNG import facility.