Italy’s Adriatic LNG to boost capacity

Adriatic LNG previously received approval to increase its regasification capacity to 10.4 billion cbm.

The LNG terminal operator said in a social media post on Wednesday that it will shut down its facility in the Adriatic Sea on August 1 for maintenance.

Adriatic LNG expects to gradually resume gas supplies to the grid towards the end of August.

This shutdown is necessary to carry out plant modifications to increase regasification capacity from 9.6 to 10.4 bcm and, at the same time, to carry out scheduled maintenance work, Adriatic LNG said.

During January-June, Adriatic LNG sent 4.5 bcm of natural gas into the national pipeline network.

This equals about 14 percent of national gas consumption and confirms Adriatic LNG as the third entry source for Italian gas imports.

The volumes rose 2.2 percent compared to 4.4 bcm in the same period last year, when they reached a half-year record.

Adriatic LNG’s facility received 39 LNG carriers during the first half, mostly from Qatar and the US, covering about 44 percent of Italy’s LNG imports.

Launched in 2009, the world’s first offshore gravity-based LNG import terminal sits about 14 kilometers offshore of Porto Levante and has regasification capacity of about 9.6 bcm per year.

Since the start of operations in 2009, Adriatic LNG has received more than 1170 LNG carriers from over 10 countries, delivering over 105 bcm of gas.

In December last year, Rotterdam-based storage terminal owner VTTI, co-owned by Vitol, IFM, and Adnoc, and Italian energy firm Snam completed their acquisition of Adriatic LNG.

Italy’s largest LNG terminal is now owned by VTTI and Snam with 70 percent and 30 percent ownership, respectively.