Towed by two tugs, “FSRU Toscana” has arrived in Italy, in the waters of Tuscany Region between Livorno and Pisa. The FSRU sailed away from Malta on Friday July, 26, where it has made a scheduled stop necessary to finalize some mechanical activities in preparation of installation and testing. The FSRU, once operative, will have a regasification capacity of 3.75 billion cubic meters a year, about 4% of the national demand.
The next steps
The operative procedures will be the following: the FSRU will be first anchored to the seabed through the 6 anchors already installed. It will then connect to the subsea pipeline to transport the regasified gas, completed by Snam Rete Gas. It will follow a phase of testing with LNG onboard the FSRU. It’s estimated that testing activities will be completed in about three months.
Once it completes the installation phase, it will receive its first LNG carrier at the end of August. The start of commercial activity in operation is therefore planned for the last quarter of 2013.
“We are certainly excited about the arrival of FSRU Toscana in Livorno” – said the OLT CEO Peter Carolan (E.ON) – “and firmly sure that this initiative represents an important opportunity for socio-economic development of the territory. Weʼll be focused on safety and environment. Moreover, an on going monitory of the performances of our Terminal, will be carry on by the competent Institutions” .
Even Valter Pallano, OLT CEO (Iren) , did not fail to emphasize his satisfaction after years of work: “This project has particular importance in the evolution of the national strategy on imports of gas both from the point of view of growth and diversification of existing infrastructures and for the development of opportunities for access to new emerging markets of Liquefied Natural Gas”.
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 realize the regasification terminal project which envisages a floating unit positioned 22 km offshore the Tuscan coast. The gas will be transferred onshore through a 36.5 km long pipeline, of which 29.5 km are at sea and 7 km on dry land, operated and managed by Snam Rete Gas.