The commissioning phase of the regasification plant of OLT Offshore LNG Toscana is on going, in line with the company’s operating program. After successful offloading of the first LNG cargo and with the completion of all safety and environmental checks, the Terminal started to regasify the LNG since the beginning of October, exporting, without problems, natural gas in the network of Snam Rete Gas.
Further LNG has arrived, according to the commissioning program. The operations have been performed following to all the environmental and safety prescriptions issued from the competent Authorities (Ministry for the Environment, ISPRA, ARPAT, CTR), in compliance with the dispositions of the Maritime Authority. All these activities are carried on also under the continuous supervision of the Port of Livorno Coast Guard.
“Commissioning of the Terminal proceeds,” declared Peter Carolan , managing director of OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, “without problems from a technical, safety and environmental point of view”.
In terms of safety, the company reaffirms that its regasification plant, as well as any moored vessel, does not suffer the affects of events like earthquakes or tsumani. The same is valid for the pipeline. It is opportune to remember that in Italy there are 36.000 km of steel pipelines for the transport of imported gas (about the 78% of the national demand), also in seismic areas. Gas and heavy hydrocarbons are transported, in maximum safety conditions, through steel pipelines in highly critical in terms of intensity and frequency of earthquakes areas throughout the world.
The commissioning of the Terminal and the start of commercial operations are planned for the month of December, at the end of testing activities currently underway. At full capacity, the plant will have a regasification capacity of 3.75 billion cubic meters per year , about 4% of the national demand.
OLT Offshore LNG Toscana, set up from the association of E.ON Group (46.79%), Iren Group (46.79%), Golar Offshore Toscana Limited (3.73%) and OLT Energy Toscana SpA (2.69%), was created to realize the regasification terminal project which envisages a floating unit positioned 22 km offshore the Tuscan coast.
The gas will be transferred onshore through a 36.5 km long pipeline operated and managed by Snam Rete Gas, of which 29.5 km are at sea and 7 km on dry land.
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October 22, 2013