Another step towards commissioning the Piombino regasification terminal. The regasification vessel Golar Tundra, which Snam will deploy for three years at the port of Piombino, left Keppel shipyard in Singapore on 21 February and sailed for Tuscany. Snam’s ship has been repainted during the stopover at the Singapore shipyard and will arrive in Piombino in a new blue and red look. Let’s see what the timing is for the Piombino regasification terminal and what the impact will be on the Italian gas supply thanks to the regasification of LNG, liquefied natural gas.
What are the hours of the Piombino regasification terminal?
The Golar Tundra remained in Singapore and Malaysian waters for so-called “sea trials”. On February 28, he left for Piombino, where he was expected in mid-March. The route includes the Golar Tundra passing through the Suez Canal.
On 24 March, however, Snam was given a 100-day extension given by Eugenio Giani, president of the Tuscany Region, to indicate the offshore location where the Golar Tundra would be stationed after the first three years spent moored in the port of Piombino. The Piombino regasification terminal has been widely criticized by citizens and local politicians. The municipality appealed, but the Lazio Regional Administrative Court rejected it.
The judges observed that “from the initial examination of the documents submitted, the process leading to the adoption of the loaded sentence did not yield any evidence of obvious anomalies in the development of the procedure or of indisputable investigative shortcomings that could support it”. suspension of the contested measures before the merits are fully resolved”.
Furthermore, “The feared risks to public safety regarding the regasification terminal are currently out of date, given that the Final Safety Report and Integrated Authorization must be obtained before it can be put into operation. Work has been initiated in the SIN area, in line with the detailed requirements and recommendations made by the competent bodies. No significant contingency or critical problem has arisen in the conduct of activities that should have been pursued as a commissary and was merged with the Commissariat Decree 140” of 25.10.2022.
The importance of the Piombino regasification terminal
In terms of the process of diversifying supplies to eliminate dependence on Russian gas, the Draghi government had decided to increase Italy’s regasification capacity by adding two more to the existing three plants. The designated spots were Ravenna and Piombino. On the Tuscany site, protests from local politicians and citizens slowed the work process. In 2022, Snam purchased the Golar Tundra regasification vessel for approximately 330 million euros. The Tuscan Region’s extraordinary commissioner for the facility, Region President Eugenio Giani, signed the ordinance for the installation, but the mobilization of citizens and local politics has slowed implementation and permitting.
LNG carriers such as Golar Tundra transfer LNG to tanks at the regasification terminal. Transfer takes place via steel discharge arms attached to the regasification vessel, which is connected to the LNG tanker to receive the gas. Next, the liquid gas is made solid thanks to the temperature difference: liquid methane at a temperature of -160 degrees Celsius comes into a heat exchanger through which a warmer liquid, usually seawater, flows. The temperature difference turns the methane gas into gas.
Piombino will supply around 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which adds to a total of 10, in addition to the other 5 coming from the Ravenna regasification terminal: two regasification plants, considering that in 2022 Italy’s annual gas requirement is 68.6 billion cubic meters alone will correspond to 14.6 percent and will increase the total share of LNG to over 35 percent of imports. The contribution of LNG and regasification plants is crucial for the complete regasification of gas supplies from Russia in 2023. The Piombino regasification plant is scheduled to be commissioned between April and May 2023.
continue reading today
Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
