A sustainable transition

Figure 1. FSRU Toscana aerial view.

Giovanni Giorgi, OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, Italy, considers the role of LNG for Italian and European energy independence.

he conflict in Ukraine has been a turning point in the European energy market. The issue of energy independence from Russia, in fact, immediately acquired centrality, prompting the European institutions and the member states of the Union to study effective solutions to achieve a rapid diversification of supply sources. The RePowerEU plan, launched in March 2022 by the European Commission, takes on great significance. The Italian government, for its part, has faced the reduction of supplies from Moscow, Russia, by increasing energy links with other supplier countries and at the same time accelerating the storage capacities deriving from its own resources.

In this complex and rapidly evolving scenario, LNG can certainly play a key role. The European Commission estimates that it will be able to replace two-thirds of Russian gas imports within the next year by mainly using LNG. Proof of this is the agreement signed in March with the US, through which Washington undertook to increase supplies to European countries, guaranteeing 15 billion m3 in 2022, with future increases of up to 50 billion m3 .

The FSRU Toscana terminal, managed by OLT Offshore LNG Toscana – a company controlled by Snam and Igneo Infrastructure Partners – can make a decisive contribution to Italian energy independence. Among the main infrastructures of national interest for the import

of LNG, the terminal currently has a maximum authorised capacity of 3.75 billion m3/y commercially offered with 41 slots of 155 000 liquid m3 each.

The regasification capacity is offered on annual and multi-year allocation processes in the months of May and July. If there is still available capacity in the current gas year, the latter is offered monthly during the infra-annual allocation processes through capacity product auctions, monthly and spot auctions, and first come first served (FCFS) in order to maximise the regasification capacity allocation by meeting the ever-changing needs of the energy market.

It should be noted that the auctions held last June for the gas years 2022/2023 – 2032/2033 have shown remarkable results. OLT has allocated, in fact, the entire capacity for the gas years 2022/2023 and 2023/2024. 83% of the capacity per year was then allocated until 2026/2027, which is equivalent to approximately 3.2 billion m3/y, as well as 5% of the capacity for the gas years 2027/2028 and 2028/2029.

Faced with the energy needs that emerged as a result of the Ukrainian conflict, the authorisation for an increase in the terminal’s regasification capacity would certainly constitute an important step in the implementation of the Italian energy strategy. The studies carried out have shown that the terminal’s capacity could be expanded up to 5 billion m3/y in a short time. This increase, which does not involve plant modifications but only an efficiency of logistics, would help to achieve the goal of guaranteeing the security and diversification of the country’s energy supply.

OLT’s commitment is also aimed at the issue of sustainability to make the growth in company activities compatible with protecting safety and safeguarding the environment. During 2021, for example, the climate-changing emissions related to the terminal’s activity were reduced by 7%, not to mention the initiatives to offset carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions taken by OLT in 2021, such as reforestation interventions through the recovery of woodland areas and the creation of new peri-urban green areas. Furthermore, in support of the fight against climate change, OLT is planning to define a GHG reduction plan with subsequent development of decarbonisation projects.

Figure 2. Ship-to-ship operations at FSRU Toscana.

A key resource in the energy transition process

The changes in the energy scenario caused by the war in Ukraine have contributed to enrich the Brussels agenda with new priorities. The quick breakaway of the EU from Russian energy dependence has joined the broader goal of the energy transition, which sees its milestone in the New Green Deal of 2019. The EU has therefore outlined a clear development strategy. The goal is to become the first climate-neutral continent through total decarbonisation by 2050.

The EU’s objectives are certainly ambitious, but at the same time needed, as also highlighted by the heat and drought of the Summer of 2022. To make them credible, adequate strategic planning and the allocation of significant investments in the energy and mobility sector will have to be envisaged.

In this perspective, natural gas (gaseous or liquefied) can play an essential role, especially in the mobility sector. The gas infrastructures could be converted, in the long term, into the transport and storage of new generation gases, such as biogas or bio-LNG, synthetic methane, or be used for the transport and reception of hydrogen, in the liquid state or mixed with other gases.

LNG, in addition to providing support to the energy system stability when the low production of electricity from renewable sources occurs, thanks to its environmental performance, is one of the fuels that can guarantee the low emissions required for the reduction of CO2 emissions, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and particulate in the maritime and heavy land transport sectors, envisaged by the new regulations that will come into force to achieve the zero-emissions targets by 2050.

In the continental context, Italy is at the centre of this change, not only from a geographical point of view. On the one hand, the country has the largest European network of LNG fuel stations for road transport; on the other hand, there are three important regasification terminals allowing to receive LNG from all over the world, providing a key contribution to the security and diversification of supplies.

After the inaugurations of the first two coastal LNG deposits in 2021, which marked a defining moment in the consolidation of the Italian small scale LNG supply chain, 2022 will be the year of the completion of the Italian supply chain: OLT will be the first Italian terminal to provide the small scale LNG service; this service means that small LNG carriers can load LNG directly at the regasification and storage terminal to refuel LNG ships or to deliver it to coastal deposits inside the Mediterranean ports.

Following the authorisation process started in March 2019, in October 2020 OLT received authorisation to implement the modifications to the terminal necessary to launch the service. Following a study on logistics that has deepened the reception capacity of the terminal, confirming the possibility of receiving a greater number of small LNG carriers than the authorised one, OLT has decided to increase the flexibility and efficiency of the terminal by undertaking a new authorisation path, in progress at the moment, to allow the berthing of up to 122 small scale LNG carriers a year.

FSRU Toscana will be able to receive small scale carriers with a maximum length of 120 m, corresponding to a capacity of approximately 7500 liquid m3. The mooring system, the manifolds, and ESD will be in accordance with OCIMF and SIGTTO recommendation.

From a commercial point of view, the service will be offered, as soon as the works are completed, in a non-discriminatory manner and on an auction basis via the regasification capacity allocation platform (PAR) managed by Gestore Mercati Energetici (GME).

This service is of fundamental importance, considering that the LNG currently used in the Italian small scale LNG logistics chain is totally imported from abroad. This will allow the completion of the supply chain of LNG as a fuel, not only for maritime transport but also for land transport, as well as for civil and industrial uses in areas not supplied by the national gas grid.

The centrality of LNG in the transition towards a sustainable society therefore rests on three areas: marine, road transport, and distribution. In the marine sector, the use of LNG is compliant with the limits imposed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the ‘SECA’ sulfur emission control areas; from 1 January 2020, the North Sea, the Channel, and the Baltic Sea have become part of these areas, while it has already been proposed that the Mediterranean Sea will also be part of them as soon as possible (it is expected that this proposal will come in force on 1 January 2025). The fuels used today in those areas by container ships, ferries, cruise ships, and other merchant vessels must comply with a sulfur emission limit of 0.5%, a significant step forward compared to the previous maximum allowed value (3.5%). In land transport, the use of LNG allows considerable savings in terms of climate-changing emissions, as it does not contain particulate and contributes to noise reduction. The vehicles, as well as ships, that choose this type of power supply also have an important advantage for the future: being able to use the renewable option of LNG (bio-LNG), and not only the fossil one.

Figure 3. FSRU Toscana T16.

Figure 4. Simulation of a small scale LNG carrier approaching the terminal.

Main features of the terminal

The FSRU Toscana floating terminal, through which OLT guarantees the storage and regasification of LNG, is one of the main infrastructures of national interest for the import of LNG serving the development and autonomy of the Italian energy system.

Permanently anchored approximately 22 km off the coast between Livorno and Pisa in the Tuscany region, the terminal, which entered into commercial operation in December 2013, contributes substantially to the Italian gas system, guaranteeing the security and diversification of the country’s energy supply with approximately 5% of the national requirement covered.

The terminal is energetically self-sufficient, using the boil-off gas (BOG) to produce the energy needed for operations.

OLT is authorised to receive approximately 90% of the current LNG carrier fleet, in particular those with a cargo capacity between 65 000 m3 and the new panamax class (approximately 180 000 m3); Wobbe Index system installed on board, which makes it possible to correct the quality of LNG in terms of calorific value, adapting it to the specific requests of the national network, allows the reception of most of the LNG produced in the world. The contribution that FSRU Toscana provides to the diversification of supply is confirmed by the receipt of LNG cargoes arriving from the main exporting countries such as Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US.

Furthermore, users of the regasification service can take advantage of additional services such as flexibility ones. Specifically, nomination and renomination service, virtual liquefaction service, and extended storage service.

The nomination and renomination service allows the user of the regasification service to modulate, even within the same day, the quantity of LNG regasified and redelivered at the entry point of the national grid or at the virtual exchange point (PSV), according to the timing and procedures set out in the regasification code.

The virtual liquefaction service allows the users to deliver natural gas at the PSV by receiving an equivalent quantity of LNG inside the terminal tanks. Such LNG can be either received, as liquid, into small scale carriers or, as natural gas, at the entry point of the national grid.

The extended storage service consists in providing to the regasification users a temporary storage service for a quantity of LNG inside the terminal tanks, which could be redelivered as liquid onto small LNG carriers or regasified and sent into the national grid in a period other than the one in which such LNG was discharged into the terminal.