A launching ceremony was held on Tuesday at Drydocks World shipyard for the floating regasification terminal “FSRU Toscana” of OLT Offshore LNG Toscana. The terminal will reach Italy in the second quarter of 2013 and will be located 22 kilometres off the coast between Livorno and Pisa.
The terminal “FSRU Toscana” will be transferred from Dubai to the installation site, with the assistance of tug boats. The arrival of the terminal is estimated after about 40 days from the departure, followed first by commissioning and the consequent launching of the commercial activities scheduled for the third quarter of 2013.
The OLT regasification will have a regasification capacity of 3.75 billion cubic meters per year. In the operating stage, the terminal will be flanked by gas carriers used for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). The LNG will be taken from the ships via four mobile arms and poured into the four spherical tanks of the regasification terminal.
The LNG will be stored and put into “heat exchangers”, placed in the bow of the ships, bringing it back to the gaseous state. Later, the gas will be transferred ashore through a connection pipeline of about 32 kilometres. During its operative life, the terminal will be able to receive in average one delivery of LNG per week.
The ceremony was attended by two Managing Directors of OLT Offshore LNG Toscana on behalf of the majority shareholder, Peter Carolan for E.ON Group and Valter Pallano for Iren Group. While speaking on the occasion, Mr. Carolan and Mr. Pallano underlined the importance of the ceremony in view of starting operation of the third LNG terminal in Italy.
They reaffirmed the significance of the “FSRU Toscana” terminal, as a paramount infrastructure for the energy supply in Italy and as an important opportunity for the territory that will host it, in terms of social and economic advantages, estimated at the moment to approximately € 400 million over the plant’s life.
OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, set up from the association of E.ON Group (46.79%), Iren Group (46.79%), Golar Offshore Toscana Limited (3.73%) and OLT Energy Toscana SpA (2.69%), was created to implement the regasification terminal project which envisages a floating unit positioned 22 km off the Tuscan coast. The gas will be transferred onshore through a 36.5 km long pipeline operated and managed by Snam Rete Gas, of which 29.5 km are at sea and 7 km on dry land.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, February 06, 2013; Image: OLT Offshore