MILAN Reuters -- Itay's Snam will choose the offshore site for its new floating storage and regasification unit FSRU in the next 100 days, Italy's special commissioner for the project said on Friday, with its initial location facing a legal challenge.
Italy's gas grid operator plans to moor the newly-bought FSRU in the port of Piombino on Italy's west coast for the next three years as part of the government's plan to diversify energy supply away from Russian gas.
After this period, it has committed to move the floating liquefied natural gas LNG terminal to an offshore destination that it was expected to name on Friday.
Snam is looking for a solution. The group asked for 150 days of extension. That's too long, I'll give Snam an additional 100 days to find an offshore site that will hopefully be away from the Tuscan coast, state-appointed commissioner for the Eugenio Giani project said.
Giani is also the president of Tuscany, where the port of Piombino is located.
The delay has sparked criticism from Piombino's mayor Francesco Ferrari, who has been leading the opposition against the planned new infrastructure.
The extension granted to Snam is ridiculous. Ferrari said in a statement that the risk is that the ship will remain in our port for longer and this is unacceptable.
The mayor of Piombino, a member of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, launched a legal challenge against the FSRU last month.
The court is expected to rule on the appeal to an Italian administrative court on December 21, which includes a precautionary request to suspend work to set up the vessel.
The preliminary work to prepare the site has continued, with a tight deadline to have it ready by April in order to help Italy prepare for winter.
Snam's FSRU Italia Managing Director Elio Ruggeri told Reuters on Friday that the vessel's commitment to relocate the vessel away from the port of Piombino was confirmed.
We need to complete our analysis about the mooring system for the FSRU and search for other possible offshore locations that are also alternative to the coast of Tuscany, Ruggeri said.
He said that the possibility of moving the vessel to an offshore site in central or northern Italy is something that the group is looking at to avoid congestion on the gas transport network that connects the south of Italy to the northern regions where the many manufacturers are located.