Adriatic LNG plans to expand Rovigo capacity to 9 Bcm/year

Barcelona — Italy's largest LNG terminal, GNL Rovigo, operated by Adriatic LNG has submitted plans to expand capacity at the site to 9 Bcm from 8 Bcm a year, the company told S&P Global Platts Sept. 2.

The plans, which consist of operational adjustments rather than physical modifications, have been submitted to the country's Environment Ministry before a possible environmental impact assessment, the company said.

According to the submitted documents some of the existing back-up equipment will be pressed into full-time service with two of the three turbines in operation and a third on standby.

If approved, the modifications will mean send out capacity at the terminal, 70% owned by ExxonMobil, 23% by Qatar Petroleum and 7% by Italian gas grid operator Snam, will be increased from a current 21.7 million cu m/d to 26 million cu m/d, close to the 26.4 million cu m/d capacity of the entry point to the grid at Cavarzere.

Adriatic LNG recently carried out modifications allowing it to receive the large Q-flex sized tankers, capable of discharging 217,000 cu m of LNG. These have five- day slots at the site, compared with 175,000 cu m vessels, which have six-day slots. The offshore terminal has two onboard 125,000 cu m storage tanks.

With the proposed modifications, the site will be able to handle up to 103 conventional-sized or 68 large scale carriers a year. The terminal received its first Q-Flex from Qatar in June.

While Adriatic LNG has for several years been the most productive terminal in Italy, Italy's two other terminals at Panigaglia (3.5 Bcm/year -- owned by Snam) and OLT (3.75 Bcm/year -- owned by Snam and Australia's First State) have boosted their operating rates in recent years, aided by the introduction of the centralized Platform for the Allocation of Regasification Capacity (PAR), a general move to shorter-term contracts and increased LNG supply.

The three terminals collectively regasified 8.0 Bcm of gas in January-July, which although a 4% year on year decrease due to the impact of the coronavirus, was less than the 10% drop in total Italian gas imports.

So far this year, there has been an uptick in the share of LNG in the gas supply mix to 20% from 19% a year earlier and from 11% and 12% in the same period of the previous two years.