The Italian LNG Panigaglia terminal will double in storage capacity by the end of 2021, Snam Rete Gas (who owns the terminal’s operator GNL Italia) said last week.
The works will bring back online an existing 50,000 m3 tank, which was taken offline five years ago. Once works are completed, total storage capacity at the terminal will be around 100,000 m3.
Regasification capacity at the Panigaglia terminal will remain the same at 2.5 million tpy for the time being. This is the smallest one in the country compared with the 2.8 million tpy capacity of OLT Toscana and 6 million tpy at Adriatic.
The cost of the refurbishment is estimated to be around €20 million.
Italy has other two other LNG terminals, the OLT Toscana with 137,500 m3 of storage capacity and the Adriatic terminal with 250,000 m3 of storage capacity.
The project, once completed, will half the time cargoes take to unload and therefore reduce renting ships’ costs, paving the way for longer-term and intraday products to provide more flexibility to the market.
It will also enable truckloading and small scale services going forward and make the terminal more competitive in the south of Europe, especially against competitor ports in Marseille and Barcelona.
The operator is also considering a potential extension of the terminal’s pier in the open sea to allow larger vessels to dock. The current investment does not include this possibility.
For more information visit www.snam.it
