Italy’s 1st small-scale LNG terminal nearing completion

Italy is to get its first small-scale liquefied natural gas facility as construction works progress on the Higas terminal located on the island of Sardinia.

The small-scale storage, regasification and distribution facility will be ready “in a few months”, according to Gas & Heat, the Italian engineering company that is the EPC contractor for the project.

London-based Avenir LNG, a joint venture consisting of Stolt-Nielsen, Hoegh LNG and Golar LNG, owns Higas with a 80 per cent stake while its local partners Gas & Heat and CPL Concordia hold 10 per cent share, each.

Higas started building the facility in the Port of Oristano in Sardinia back in 2018 and previously expected to launch the terminal in the second half of 2019.

The project operator expects the terminal to be full operational by the end of this year.

The terminal will have a dedicated 7,500-cbm Avenir LNG carrier.

It will be able to receive LNG from small and medium-sized carriers, to discharge the fuel into the storage tanks mainly for use in liquid form as fuel for automotive, industrial, civil and marine industries.

The facility features six horizontal low-pressure cryogenic tanks, and will have a capacity to load up to 8,000 LNG trucks per year – equivalent to 180,000 tons per year – via two loading bays.

Furthermore, the terminal will also have a connection to a natural gas pipeline system that will allow the fuel to be distributed to local industry.

Avenir LNG expects the total costs of the small-scale facility to be $43.2 million.