Adriatic LNG breaks records in 2023
Published by Jessica Casey,
Editor
LNG Industry,
In 2023, Adriatic LNG achieved new significant results in terms of both reliability and regasified volumes delivered to the national grid, decisively contributing to the security, diversification, and competitiveness of the Italian and European energy systems. The regasification terminal located off the Veneto coast sent 8.5 billion m3 of natural gas into the national pipeline network (+7% compared to 2022), covering over 14% of national gas consumption and confirming itself as the third entry source for Italian gas imports. The terminal therefore broke its previous best annual record, scored in 2022, when it sent 7.9 billion m3 of gas into the national grid.
These results confirm the increasing relevance of LNG in the Italian energy mix. In 2023, total LNG imports to Italy amounted to 16.6 billion m3, registering a 16.8% increase compared to 2022, and meeting 27% of the national gas demand (61.5 billion m3).
Considering 2023 Italian LNG imports, over 50% was covered by Adriatic LNG, which confirmed to be a reliable and secure infrastructure for its customers, with an operations reliability rate of 99.6%.
Alfredo Balena, Director of External Relations at Adriatic LNG, stated: “In 2023, our terminal confirmed to be a strategic energy infrastructure for Italy and Europe. Simplifying, we can say that the 8.5 billion m3 of natural gas injected by Adriatic LNG into the national grid represent an energy quantity equivalent to approximately 93 million MWh, equivalent to the total energy consumed by Veneto and Lombardy regions for a year.”
In 2023, 75 LNG carriers were received by Adriatic LNG, mainly from Qatar and the US, but also from other geographical areas, including, for the first time, Mozambique, thus contributing to opening new routes for LNG imports to Italy. In total, from 2009 – 2023, 1058 LNG carriers arrived at the regasification terminal, for a total of 92 billion m3 of gas sent into the national gas grid.
“The security of energy supplies in Europe and Italy is and will increasingly be based on LNG,” Balena continued. “The significant growth in LNG imports occurring over the last two years is linked to efforts being made to reduce dependence, and increase resilience, of the European gas system. These efforts are driving Italy and Europe to maximise the use of existing LNG infrastructure and, in many cases, add new LNG import capacity. For this reason, we have submitted a request to authorise a project to increase the regasification capacity of our terminal by 0.5 billion m3/y. This new capacity, which could be available starting from 2026, has already been allocated for the next 20 years if the authorisation process concludes positively.”
With a maximum regasification capacity of 9.6 billion m3/y (including 0.6 billion m3 of not constant capacity), Adriatic LNG is the main Italian regasification terminal and the only one able to receive LNG carriers up to 217 000 liquid m3 (so-called ‘super large scale LNG vessels’), among the largest available in the market, with evident benefits in terms of optimising discharged volumes.
Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/regasification/15032024/adriatic-lng-breaks-records-in-2023/
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