Italy’s FSRU embarks on final stage of maintenance works in Marseille

Italy’s floating regasification terminal operator OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, controlled by Snam and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, has confirmed the start of the second and final phase of maintenance activities for its floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), which will go back to its post off the coast of Livorno afterward.

After the FSRU Toscana was unhooked, two tugs assisted in towing the FSRU to the port of Genoa, where it was expected to remain at the dock for about a month to start the first phase of the extraordinary maintenance intervention.

According to OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, the FSRU Toscana has completed the first maintenance phase on schedule and left Genoa for Marseille to begin the second phase, thanks to a contract with San Giorgio del Porto (SGdP).

The FSRU has been towed, with the support of three tugs, to the port of Marseille, where the extraordinary maintenance operations aimed at replacing the bearing of the anchoring system will be wrapped up.

The operator explains that this system is designed and built to ensure the rotation of the terminal around the geostationary turret permanently anchored to the seabed. These shipyard activities are anticipated to be over by mid-September when operations to re-install the FSRU at its designated site offshore Livorno will kick off. This unit is due to resume operations from mid-October 2024.

Once it comes back online, the FSRU Toscana, moored about 22 km off the coast between Livorno and Pisa, will be once again connected 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.

The FSRU Toscana has a maximum authorized regasification capacity of 5 billion Sm3 a year, after a green light to boost annual regasification capacity from 3.75 billion to about 5 billion standard cubic meters per year was given in May 2023.