Snam teams up with KN to start up Italy’s new floating LNG terminal

Italian energy company Snam has selected Lithuanian oil and LNG terminals’ operator Klaipedos Nafta (KN) for collaboration in the start-up of a greenfield FSRU-based LNG terminal in the port of Piombino.

KN said it will support Snam in the FSRU installation and subsequent commissioning and testing of the new floating LNG terminal in Tuscany, in the province of Livorno.

The terminal is seen as a strategic project to help ensure Italy’s energy needs, increasing security of supply and diversification.

The terminal design is based on the FSRU, Golar Tundra, purchased last year by Snam FSRU Italia, with a capacity of 170,000 cubic metres and a nominal throughput of 5 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year. The unit is scheduled to start operations in the upcoming spring.

Darius Šilenskis, CEO of KN, commented on the collaboration: “I am glad that KN is helping Europe to enhance its energy independence with its experience and knowledge. Having done our homework in 2014 and ensured alternatives for the supply of natural gas to Lithuania, today being the main gas supply route to the Baltic region, we can get involved in the implementation of strategic projects of other European countries.

“We are starting this year with a great partnership with Snam FSRU for an equally strategic LNG terminal project. Undoubtedly, one of the most important achievements of the past year was the decision of the German energy giant Uniper to select KN to provide commercial operation services for Germany’s first floating LNG terminal in the port of Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea coast.”

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