BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3.The Adriatic Pipeline project will facilitate increased gas supplies via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Trend reports via the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The latest IEA report recalls that in 2022, the Italian government began investigating the potential of numerous projects aimed at facilitating a phase-out of the dependency of gas supply from Russia.
"In March 2022, the government mandated the Snam Group to make efforts to secure FSRUs; at least one FSRU is set to be operational by 2023, while two additional ones have been secured for installation by the end of 2024; the FSRUs would have a combined capacity of at least 10 bcm. In March 2022, Enel, Italy’s biggest energy utility, began to investigate the potential for a previously discarded plan to construct a new LNG terminal in southern Italy. The proposed Porto Empedocle LNG project would have a capacity of 8 bcm/y.
The government has yet to take a decision on the project. A lengthy authorisation process and the lack of a government guarantee to cover costs in the event of low utilisation levels have been cited by industry as major impediments to the construction of additional new LNG import capacity. The Adriatic pipeline project, which involves the construction of new pipeline infrastructure from Puglia in southern Italy, aims to facilitate increased imports from the TAP pipeline; the project has an estimated cost of EUR 2.4 billion and is projected to be commissioned in 2024. The Italian government has also backed the construction of the proposed EastMed pipeline, which would transport gas to southern Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean; however, the status of this project remains uncertain," reads the report.
TAP has transported more than 22 billion cubic meters of gas since the start of commercial operations. Its initial capacity is 10 billion cubic meters expandable to 20 billion cubic meters.