HIGAS close to finishing LNG facility

HIGAS will soon complete the first coastal LNG service facility in Sardinia, Italy. Two Italian companies, Gas and Heat and Cpl Concordia, came together in 2014 to establish HIGAS and are undertaking this initiative in an underdeveloped industrial area in the port of Oristano. HIGAS’s partners will design, build and operate the facility.

Six cryogenic horizontal storage tanks

The joint project proposes a coastal facility with a storage and transfer capacity for 9000 m³ of methane-based gas products for industrial and commercial usage, such as for both land, buses and trucks, and sea transport. The facility will have six cryogenic horizontal storage tanks operating at low pressure and will be serviced by small sea going gas carriers, capable of carrying 5000-7000 m³ of gas. This facility will, in fact, be the first LNG bunkering facility in the Mediterranean and it is expected to begin operations before the due date that has been established by the European Community for such a capability.

The area selected for the facility is today an under utilised industrial zone. This coastal LNG facility is expected to be the catalyst for the development of approximately 16 000 m³ in the industrial area, thereby providing multiple economic benefits to the community and the island.

HIGAS recently completed the basic engineering and project definition for this LNG storage and service facility, and in April of this year presented the plan details and proposed development to the appropriate regional authorities and institution for approval and authorisation to proceed.

The President of HIGAS, Robert Madella, and its Managing Director, Claudio Evangelisti, are optimistic regarding approvals and have stated that “considering the time necessary for the appropriate regional authority studies, it is possible that in 18 - 24 months we can have in operation Sardinia’s first costal LNG bunkering facility”.

Edited from press release by Callum O'Reilly

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/regasification/24062015/higas-is-close-to-finishing-first-coastal-lng-facility-in-sardinia-568/