Sardinia LNG Awaits Final Decree

Higas, the developer of a small-scale LNG storage unit in Sardinia, says it has received all necessary approvals for its venture and now is only awaiting the ministerial decree before it can start construction.

It said that Italy's economic development ministry concluded its approval on September 28 of the project to build and operate the 9,000 m³ LNG storage plant in Santa Giusta near Oristano on Sardinia's west coast. Italy's infrastructure and transport ministry granted its approval on October 4.

The project will be developed in an industrial zone at the Port of Oristano, halfway down the west coast of Sardinia (Photo credit: Sardinia)

Higas said this month that its project will be the first small-scale LNG storage unit in the Mediterranean. It is also likely to provide the first natural gas to Sardinia, a large but sparsely populated island, and may help reduce its high dependency on fuel oil.

Two Italian companies, Gas and Heat and Cpl Concordia, formed Higas in 2014. The facility will be supplied by small 5,000-7,000 m³ LNG carriers.

The stalled - or doomed -  Galsi gas pipeline project (Map credit: Edison)

Sardinia, which has no access to natural gas supplies, was to have been on the route of the 8bn m³/yr Galsi pipeline which Algerian state Sonatrach and others wanted built to the region of Tuscany, on the west coast of Italy's mainland. Surveys of the route along the seabed were undertaken. However Europe's gas demand slump since 2010 meant that the project, despite still being officially promoted, now looks unlikely to be ever built. 

Mark Smedley