Page 4 - EurOil Week 11 2022

EurOil COMMENTARY EurOil

Italy’s Enel ready to revive Porto

Empedocle LNG project

ITALY THE Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to is seeking to establish alternatives, including
drive changes in various countries’ energy pol- two LNG import terminals. A memorandum
WHAT: icies and plans, including in the sphere of LNG. of understanding (MoU) on the first of these
Enel is reportedly ready On March 8, it was reported that Italian utility terminals was signed last week, illustrating the
to revive plans to build Enel was preparing to revive previously aban- urgency of these initiatives.
the previously cancelled doned plans to build the Porto Empedocle LNG
Porto Empedocle LNG import terminal in Sicily, off the country’s south Italian plans
project. coast. Now Italy appears to be following suit, based on
This emerged at the same time as the Euro- initial indications. Enel’s plan to revive the Porto
WHY: pean Union unveiled plans to cut Russian gas Empedocle LNG project was reported by Reu-
Italy is urgently seeking imports by two-thirds within a year and phase ters, which cited the company as saying it would
to reduce its dependence them out it out altogether by 2030. The plan be useful for Italy to build two additional LNG
on Russian gas in the includes ramping up gas imports from non-Rus- terminals.
wake of Russia’s invasion sian suppliers, including LNG shipments. For “For this reason, Enel has given availability to
of Ukraine. this, Europe will also need to beef up its regasifi- resume the Porto Empedocle LNG plant project,
cation capacity, following warnings in mid-Feb- that is fully permitted,” an Enel spokesperson
WHAT NEXT: ruary – prior to Russia’s attack on Ukraine – that told the news service.
Rome is also looking at the continent’s import terminals had limited This comes as the country aims to elimi-
installing a new FSRU capacity available to absorb additional LNG nate Russian gas imports within 24-30 months,
in Italian waters by the cargoes. according to Italian Minister of Energy Tran-
middle of this year. Various European countries are already sition Roberto Cingolani. He told state broad-
taking steps to respond to the unprecedented caster RAI that Russia currently accounted for
challenge of reducing their dependence on Rus- around 40% of Italy’s gas imports and that the
sian gas as fast as possible. Last week, Germany country wanted to find alternative sources of
u-turned on key elements of its energy policy, supply covering roughly half of that amount by
having already halted the certification process the spring.
for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia. With Reviving Porto Empedocle LNG will not have
the pipeline effectively cancelled and highly an immediate impact. The project was originally
unlikely to be revived as European relations designed to have a capacity of 6mn tonnes per
with Russia continue to deteriorate, Germany year (tpy), and was anticipated to take more than

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