Spanish LNG company Reganosa has won the contract to operate and maintain the first LNG terminal on the Italian island of Sardinia.
The Higas LNG terminal is an import, storage and distribution terminal being developed in the port of Oristano in western Sardinia, by Avenir LNG, with an 80% stake, and local partners Gas & Heat and CPL Concordia, which each hold a 10% stake. Construction is now in the final stage and the terminal is expected to be operational in the first half of 2021. Currently, LNG can only reach Sardinia in LNG tankers that arrive by ferry, for industrial customers. The new terminal will provide the island, which currently lacks a gas system, with a reliable supply of natural gas, including for domestic customers, helping with Italy’s decarbonisation efforts.
Higas LNG comprises a dock capable of receiving ships of up to 20,000 m3, an unloading arm, six 1,500 m3 horizontal cryogenic storage tanks, and two tank loading bays with the capacity to load up to 8,000 LNG trucks pre year, for later distribution to smaller satellite stations in Sardinia. The complex also includes an integrated electricity generation system.
Reganosa, which provides services from feasibility studies to commercial operation, including project designs, consulting, engineering and asset management, in 15 countries, says that the contract underpins its international expansion process. In January, Reganosa won the contract to operate and maintain the 1.7 million tpa Tema LNG terminal in Tema, Ghana, which combines a floating regasification unit (FRU) and a floating storage unit (FSU). It also has its own 3.6 billion m3 per year capacity land-based LNG terminal – the Mugardos terminal, at Ferrol port in Spain – and maintains the Delimara LNG Regasification plant on Malta, for Electrogas Malta.
