Snam selects vessel for Sardinian FSRU

The company has picked an opportunistic time to upgrade the island’s gas infrastructure

Italian gas infrastructure firm Snam has struck a deal with Norwegian floating LNG specialist Golar to convert the Golar Arctic LNG carrier into a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for delivery to Portovesme, Sardinia. The move looks potentially oddly timed given the Italian island has no pipeline links with continental Europe. The conversion is expected to take around two years, although work will not start until Snam issues a notice to proceed, so Sardinia’s move into large-scale LNG imports—the FSRU will have a storage capacity of up to 140,000m³—will not be immediate. But, as Europe rushes to try to increase its LNG import capacity to reduce reliance on Russian gas, it is n