Regasifier, how it works and why some don't want it

The regasifier is a plant capable of transforming liquefied natural gas (LNG) into gas.In Italy there are three, but the issue is debated.

Among the hottest topics, especially during the electoral campaign for the September 25th elections which saw the government led by Giorga Meloni take office, was the regasification terminal theme.The regasifier it is a plant capable of transforming liquefied natural gas (LNG) into gas.

This is a central issue for Italy given the energy crisis triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian war.In order to become completely self-sufficient, Italy has decided to focus on new strategies, which also includes regasifiers.

• How does a regasification terminal work?
• How many regasification plants are there in Italy?
• What changes with the Piombino and Ravenna regasifiers
• How much LNG does Italy intend to import
• The invitation to gradually eliminate gas and switch to renewables
• Are regasifiers compatible with decarbonisation?

How does a regasification terminal work?

The process of reconversion of LNG in gaseous state is divided into different phases:the liquefied gas is transported in ships at a temperature of -162 degrees centigrade, necessary to guarantee its liquid state, and is then converted back into gas through a controlled heating process, carried out inside a vaporizer.

Heating occurs by passing liquefied natural gas inside tubes immersed in sea water, which have a higher temperature.It is for this reason that the plants are located on the coast or in the sea a short distance from the coast (in the latter case we speak of offshore platforms).

How many regasification plants are there in Italy?

At the moment, in our country, there are three of them:

• in Liguria there is the Panigaglia plant, a locality of Gulf of La Spezia in the territory of the municipality of Porto Venere.Built around the late 1960s and early 1970s, it is managed by Snam.It has a maximum capacity of 3.5 billion cubic meters per year;
• the Adriatic LNG Terminal (previously also known as Porto Levante Island) is an artificial island that functions as a regasifier, located approximately 15 km off the coast of Porto Levante, a hamlet of Porto Viro, in province of Rovigo.It is managed by a joint venture made up of 70 percent by ExxonMobil, 23 percent by Qatar Petroleum and 7 percent by Snam, with a capacity of 8 billion cubic meters per year.
• Finally, the floating terminal of the “FSRU Toscana” regasification terminal, off the coast of Livorno, with a current capacity of 3.75 billion cubic meters, and which has obtained authorization to increase to 5 billion.

What changes with the Piombino and Ravenna regasifiers

In the last year they have been authorized two regasification terminal projects, one a Piombino and the other to Ravenna.For the latter, Snam purchased the storage and regasification vessel Bw Singapore, which has a regasification capacity of approximately 5 billion cubic meters.The ship will be positioned in the Northern Adriatic, 8.5 kilometers from the coast of Ravenna and should come into operation at the end of 2024.

The Piombino regasification terminal is much more controversial.Here, the mobilization of citizens (among which the mayor, Mayor Francesco Ferrari of Fratelli d'Italia, the same party that leads the government, also stands out) has slowed down the process for obtaining paperwork and authorizations.Despite this opposition, the TAR rejected the mayor's appeal and in the spring the works were unblocked.The testing phase of the regasifier began at the beginning of May but the authorization documents (in particular the AIA, the integrated environmental authorization) from the ministry are still missing from the ministry for the plant to come into regular operation.

The Snam plant will have an overall treatment capacity of 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.An amount capable of covering 7 percent of the entire LNG requirement, coming entirely from Eni which also controls 50 percent of the Damietta liquefaction plant, in Egypt, from which the supplies will arrive.

How much LNG does Italy intend to import

With the two new regasifiers, liquefied natural gas will be able to cover approximately a third of Italy's annual requirement.10 billion of LNG, in fact, will come from Ravenna and Piombino:considering that in 2022 Italy's annual gas requirement was 68.6 billion cubic meters, the two regasification plants alone would account for 14.6 percent, bringing the overall weight of LNG to over 35 percent percent of imports.Italy buys liquefied gas, mainly from Qatar, Algeria, the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria and Norway.In the first three months of 2023, LNG represented 25.8 percent of Italy's gas imports.Italy then signed contracts for the purchase of LNG from Mozambique, Congo and Angola.

Furthermore, after almost 40 years of inactivity, it became active again in July a gas field in the province of Bologna.It is located in the heart of the Po Valley, to be precise in Selva Malvezzi, municipality of Budrio.It was owned by Eni and has been closed since 1984:Two foreign companies obtained authorizations for the drills, the Australian Po Valley Energy and the British Prospex.Production, however, will be quite low:around 150 thousand cubic meters per day, but which, based on the sales contracts signed by the two companies, could drop to 70 thousand.

The invitation to gradually eliminate gas and switch to renewables

A drop of gas if you consider that Italian demand is around to 70 billion cubic meters.But a small sign that Italy still intends to focus on this fossil fuel, so much so that the Draghi government, and then the Meloni government, supported the idea of ​​transforming Italy into a hub for sorting gas coming from Africa towards the rest of Europe.

It is in this strategy that the regasification terminals fit in.Nevertheless, not everyone agrees with this vision.“Italy's energy perspective does not take into account the impact of market dynamics, the real feasibility and convenience of further infrastructure and the impact of an expansion of fossil fuels with respect to climate objectives”, comments the think tank Ecco Climate.According to the organisation, making Italy a gas hub would mean strengthening the transport infrastructure between Algeria and Italy, increasing the capacity of the TAP (the gas pipeline along the Adriatic coast) to double and providing two more fixed regasifiers in addition to those floats already planned in Ravenna and Piombino.A plan that also envisages doubling national gas production in the Adriatic Sea and more generally in the Mediterranean.

Are regasifiers compatible with decarbonisation?

A perspective that clashes with the main scenarios of decarbonisation.Proof of this is the scenario provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which shows a global demand for energy down 23 percent in 2050 compared to 2021.With it, gas supply would be reduced by 90 percent.In Europe, in particular, the impact of RepowerEU, the transition plan adopted by the European Commission, would lead to a reduction in gas demand of around 40 percent in 2030.

This is said by the same companies that historically operate in fossils.The latest report from BP (British Petroleum), for example, writes:“A combination of faster increase in energy efficiency, rapid growth of renewable energy, wind and solar, and the increasing electrification of final energy consumption means that EU demand in 2030 will be around 50 percent lower than 2019 levels.This demand is greater than the loss of gas imports from Russian pipelines, implying that the level of LNG imports needed to meet EU domestic gas consumption in 2030 is lower than in 2019."

In short, less and less gas is consumed and installed more and more renewable sources.The risk is that continuing to focus on expensive infrastructures that rely on outdated ways of producing energy will, in the long run, distance our country from the real needs of citizens and their consumption.One justification put forward by those who support the development of the gas network is that in the future, millions of cubic meters of hydrogen will flow through the same pipelines.“It is very likely that the electrolysers necessary for the production of hydrogen will be distributed within a logistics system radically different from the current one for gas,” is Ecco's reply.Which concludes:“There is a lot of evidence.Making Italy and the Mediterranean a gas hub is uneconomic and counterproductive from all points of view.On the contrary, transforming Italy into a green hub by focusing on renewable energy, electricity networks, batteries, energy efficiency, critical materials, in addition to securing water and food systems, could constitute the foundations of a new ambitious Mattei Plan, capable of building an ambitious and sustainable future for Italy and Europe”.