Italian FSRU goes back to work

Italy’s floating regasification terminal operator OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, controlled by Snam and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, has brought its floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) back to its post off the coast of Livorno.

The FSRU Toscana was unhooked and towed to the port of Genoa to start the first phase of its extraordinary maintenance intervention, which once finished enabled it to leave Genoa for Marseille to begin the second phase, which led to the conclusion of the extraordinary maintenance activities.

As a result, the FSRU left Marseille on September 30 to be towed back to Italy, with the re-installation and reconnection to the gas system scheduled for October 2. A tender was expected to be launched to find more LNG for the cool-down and gas-up activities of the FSRU Toscana terminal, necessary for cooling the LNG storage tanks and all cryogenic parts of the plant to put gas in the terminal.

Having completed the re-installation and receiving a load of LNG for the gasification and cooling of the plant, the FSRU is now fully online and has returned to commercial operation, after being reconnected to the national grid through a 36.5 km long pipeline, operated and managed by Snam, of which about 29.5 km is at sea, 5 km in the floodway, and the remaining 2 km on dry land.

According to OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, the FSRU Toscana, moored about 22 km off the coast between Livorno and Pisa, has a regasification capacity, which is currently allocated at 100% until the gas year 2026/2027.

The FSRU has a maximum authorized regasification capacity of 5 billion standard cubic meters a year, as it got the green light to increase annual regasification capacity from 3.75 billion to about 5 billion standard cubic meters per year in May 2023.