The Ravenna regasifier ship will be positioned off the coast of Punta Marina and should be operational starting from 2025. The Piombino regasifier has so far worked “without obstacles”, but the ship will leave the port by July 2026, as foreseen by the decree signed by extraordinary commissioner, Eugenio Giani
In Ravenna, work continues on the construction of the regasifier, both on land and at sea. To date, approximately 70% of the works on land and 30% of those at sea have been completed. We are also proceeding with the dismantling of the Petra platform, in view of the works necessary to prepare the new platform. Work on the dam will begin in June, and the underwater pipeline will be laid in the same weeks. Meanwhile, the subsoil engineering company ICOP has completed the infrastructure works for the construction, on behalf of Snam and Saipem, of the 1,300 meters of microtunnel that will connect the offshore and onshore methane pipelines to the national network.
RAVENNA REGASIFICATION PLANT: THE BW SINGAPORE SHIP
The centerpiece of the regasifier will be the FRSU BW Singapore vessel: purchased by Snam for approximately 367 million euros, it can operate both as a methane tanker for the transport of LNG and as an FSRU. She will arrive in the port of Ravenna next autumn. BW Singapore has a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic meters of LNG and a regasification capacity of approximately 5 billion cubic meters per year.
It will be positioned offshore, about 8 km away from Punta Marina, and should be operational starting from 2025. The economic investment is around 1 billion euros, to which must be added the 25 million euros that Snam will provide to the city of Ravenna through compensations and mitigations. In the meantime, through the “Ravenna CCS” joint venture between Eni and Snam, work continues on the capture and storage of CO2 in abandoned methane fields.
RAVENNA MEDITERRANEAN HUB FOR CO2 STORAGE
Ravenna is thus destined to become a Mediterranean hub for CO2 storage, with a total capacity that is currently estimated at over 500 million tonnes. The start of Phase 1 of the Ravenna CCS project is expected within this year: up to 25,000 tonnes of CO2 per year will be injected and stored in the exhausted Porto Corsini mare Ovest field, off the coast of Ravenna.
The carbon dioxide will be captured by the Eni gas plant in Casal Borsetti. The subsequent industrial phase will start in 2027 and will also allow the energy-intensive industries involved to capture and store CO2. It is estimated that the Ravenna CCS project will reach a storage capacity of 4 million tonnes by 2030 and, thanks to further expansions and requests coming from the market, volumes could reach over 16 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
THE PIOMBINO REGASIFICATION PLANT
Then there is the second regasification terminal under construction, the one in the port of Piombino. According to Snam – which last year purchased and brought the Golar Tundra regasifier ship to Italy – the FSRU, during its stay in Piombino (i.e. 9 months after the activation of the gas terminal, ed.) did not create problems. Nonetheless, the ship will leave the port by July 2026, as required by the decree signed by the extraordinary commissioner, Eugenio Giani. “On this front – explained Giani – there is nothing new: we are sticking to the plan. We are continuing the authorization process for the new destination of Vado Ligure and are working on the design.”
ELIO RUGGERI: “THE FIRST MONTHS OF REGASIFICATION WITHOUT TROUBLES”
Snam FSRU Italy CEO Elio Ruggeri said the ship’s presence in Piombino had no repercussions and that the first months of regasification “went off without any problems.” Ruggeri added that the company has not received reports on the source of safety and the environment, on which “we spend around 5-6 million just for the monitoring activities of the water columns, sediments and atmospheric emissions”.
As regards the economic return for the territory, Ruggeri quantified it at “20 million euros in a year, and is linked to the costs for tugboats, pilots, moored boats and other types of services”.
THE MUNICIPALITY OF PIOMBINO INTERRUPS THE APPEAL TO THE COUNCIL OF STATE
In the meantime, two days ago (April 24) the Municipality of Piombino announced that it had not lodged an appeal with the Council of State regarding the regasification terminal affair. The mayor, Francesco Ferrari, has decided to interrupt the legal battle started against the authorization process that brought the Golar Tundra ship to the port of the Tuscan city.
Last January 23rd, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court rejected the appeal presented by the Municipality of Piombino against the decision to install the regasification terminal, and on April 23rd the deadline for any appeal to the Council of State expired. “We believed that the chances of success before the Council of State were particularly low, and the timing also played a role: the Council of State’s decision would probably have arrived at the end of the 3-year stay of the LNG terminal in our port”, explained Mayor Ferrari.
ITALY’S GAS IMPORTS
Finally, regarding Italy’s gas imports, three days ago Francesco Sassi, Research Fellow – Energy Geopolitics & Markets of the RIE of Bologna, wrote in X that “Italy still imports a lot of Russian gas. Despite political announcements and requests from the European Union to eliminate gas flows from Russia, in March Italy imported almost three times the gas it imported a year ago. This gas transit passes through Ukraine.” Second ISPI Head of DataLab Matteo Villa, but “it’s not much gas, on the contrary. We are at 3-5 billion cubic meters per year, 85% less than in the five-year period 2015-2019. The goal is to minimize Russian revenue without hurting itself more than the Kremlin. This is also done by buying Russian gas in quantities sufficient to reduce its price.”
Sassi then recalled that, “after 2022 and the reduction in Russian gas exports to Europe, Italy has become increasingly dependent on pipeline imports from Algeria and Azerbaijan. At the same time, LNG imports represent a new factor in balancing our country’s gas supply. With ongoing tensions in the Red Sea and the Middle East, LNG imports from the area are slower and less safe. And Italy experienced its third consecutive warm winter.”
