Italy’s OLT Offshore LNG Toscana plans to shut its FSRU terminal, located about 22 km off the coast between Livorno and Pisa, from the beginning of April to the end of October this year for “extraordinary” maintenance.
OLT Offshore said in a statement that the FSRU Toscana will undergo maintenance at an unidentified shipyard.
Specifically, as a result of ongoing technical monitoring activities, the company decided to carry out an intervention aimed at replacing the bearing of the anchoring system of the terminal, a system designed and built to ensure the rotation of the terminal around the geostationary turret permanently anchored to the seabed, it said.
According to OLT Offshore, procedures are currently underway to schedule the suspension of operations and proceed with the bearing replacement work.
“OLT has set up an appropriate control and monitoring system for the anchoring system, whereby it states that, at present, conditions allow the full operation of the terminal without any safety and environmental impact,” the firm said.
The FSRU a maximum regasification capacity of 5 bcm a year and it sends natural gas to Italy’s national grid via a 36.5 kilometers long pipeline.
Italy’s Snam holds a 49.07 percent stake in the LNG terminal, while Igneo Infrastructure Partners owns a 48.24 percent share.
Golar LNG, that provided the 2003-built 137,100-cbm FSRU has a minor 2.69 percent stake in the LNG import facility.