Adriatic LNG Terminal
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Adriatic LNG Terminal, also known as Rovigo LNG Terminal, is an offshore LNG terminal off the coast of Rovigo Province, Italy, in the Adriatic Sea.
Location
The map below shows the location of the terminal, 14 km off the coast of Rovigo Province, Veneto Region.
Project Details
- Operator: Adriatic LNG[1]
- Owner: Adriatic LNG[1]
- Parent: ExxonMobil (70.7%), Qatar Petroleum (22%), SNAM (7.3%)[2][1]
- Location: 14 km off the coast of Rovigo Province, Veneto Region, Italy
- Coordinates: 45.091667, 12.586111 (exact)
- Capacity: 9 bcm/y[3] / 5.6 mpta[1]
- Status: Operating
- Type: Import
- Start Year: 2009[2][1]
Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day
Background
Adriatic LNG Terminal is an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal, 14 km off the coast of Rovigo Province, Italy. Construction began in Spain in May 2005, and was conducted by a consortium of nine firms; the terminal was towed into place in 2008, and brought into service in October 2009. It is connected by pipeline to a metering station in Cavarzere.[4][5][6][7]
As of June 2017, Italian gas group Snam, controlled by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, was looking to buy Edison's 7.3% stake in the terminal and in the gas pipeline that connects it to Italy's gas transmission backbone.[8] The €225 million sale to Snam was concluded in July 2017.[9]
In 2019, the Adriatic LNG Terminal recorded its most successful year to date. A February 2020 press release from terminal owner Terminale GNL Adriatico Srl noted that the terminal used 95.6% of its capacity in 2019, up from the 81% figure recorded in 2018 and the 87% recorded in the terminal's previous record year of 2010, and significantly higher than the Europe-wide average capacity usage of 50%. The terminal received 88 tankers in 2019 (up from 77 in 2018) and approached its maximum regasification capacity of 8 billion cubic meters, injecting 7.6 billion cubic meters of gas into Italy's pipeline system in 2019, up from 6.5 billion in 2018.[10]
In March 2020, Italian regulators cleared the Adriatic terminal to receive Q-Flex vessels[11], and in June 2020 the terminal received its first Q-Flex delivery from the 216,000 m3 Qatar-based Tembek.[12]
In March 2022, the terminal company announced it had raised the terminal's capacity by 13% to 9 bcm per year by optimizing its operating regime.[3]
In May 2023, it was reported that four international bidders were vying for Exxon's majority stake in the terminal. The companies include BlackRock, Igneo Infrastructure Partners, German asset manager IKAV, and energy infrastructure group VTTI.[13]
In October 2023, Exxon Mobil announced that it had selected BlackRock as the potential buyer of its majority stake in the terminal. As of this point, a final agreement had not yet been reached.[14]
In March and April of 2024, agreements were made to change the ownership structure of the project. VTTI—co-owned by Vitol, IFM, and Adnoc, and IKAV—will acquire a majority stake in the project by purchasing ExxonMobil's and QatarEnergy's shares. In response, Snam will exercise its right to increase its share to 30% under an existing agreement with the current shareholders. The new ownership struture, with VTTI holding 70% and Snam holding 30% of Adriatic LNG, is expected to come into effect in the latter half of 2024.[15][16]
Opposition
Opposition groups have cited the low utilization rates of Italy's operating LNG terminals to call into question the necessity of such extensive LNG infrastructure in the country. According to Food and Water Europe's 2019 profile on Italy's gas use, "Between January 2012 and March 2019 all Italian LNG terminals were used at only ~31% of their capacity."[17]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (May 24, 2022). "Annual Report 2022 Edition" (PDF). GIIGNL. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 The LNG Industry: Annual Report 2020, page 38, International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers, accessed April 29, 2020
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Enza Tedesco, Italy’s Adriatic LNG terminal raises capacity by 13% to 9bcm, Montel, Mar. 18, 2022
- ↑ Adriatic Rovigo LNG Terminal, Wikipedia, accessed April 2017.
- ↑ Adriatic LNG website, accessed July 2017.
- ↑ Adriatic Rovigo LNG Terminal, A Barrel Full, accessed July 2017.
- ↑ Rovigo Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal, Politecnico di Milano presentation, accessed July 2017.
- ↑ Snam in exclusive talks to buy LNG terminal stake from Edison, Reuters, 20 June 2017.
- ↑ "Edison sells ITG and its 7.3% interest in Adriatic LNG to Snam". Edison. July 25, 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Il terminale Adriatic LNG chiude un anno da record". Terminale GNL Adriatico Srl press release. February 5, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Adriatic LNG to receive first Q-Flex". Argus Media. 2020-06-12.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Qatargas delivers first Q-Flex cargo to Adriatic terminal". Offshore Energy. 2020-06-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Four bidders vie for stake in Exxon LNG terminal in Italy". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
- ↑ "Exxon Mobil to sell majority stake in Italy LNG terminal to BlackRock". Retrieved 2024-02-01.
- ↑ Reuters. Exclusive: Vitol close to buying Exxon, QatarEnergy stakes in Italy LNG terminal, sources say. March 5, 2024.
- ↑ Staff, LNG Prime (2024-04-04). "Snam boosts stake in Adriatic LNG terminal". LNG Prime. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
- ↑ Italy Food and Water Europe, accessed December 5, 2019
