WHY LNG

Regasifiers play a critical role in energy planning, since they enable the reception of new, safe and cheap long-term supplies of gas. Getting gas supplies by sea allows for diversification of sources and, as a consequence, for a more flexible market, no longer depending on international transport pipelines which force to always resort to the same suppliers.
LNG helps to reduce the dependence on specific countries at high risk of instability (as it may happen for gas pipelines). In fact, ships can obtain supplies from countries in different geographical areas.
Therefore, national energy authorities have bet on regasification plants as a solution which increases competition and the safety of supplies.

THE NEED FOR NATURAL GAS IN ITALY

• Today, Italy's gas import infrastructures are 4 large pipelines and a regasification terminal, a few kilometers from Portovenere, in the province of La Spezia (Panigaglia site).
• The Ministry for Economic Development expects a strong growth, in the future years, in the national consumption of natural gas, which is today mainly satisfied with gas from Russia and Algeria.
• Therefore, new import infrastructures must be built in order to meet this growing demand.
• A significant part of the demand should be satisfied by the new LNG regasification terminals, especially to ensure safety and diversification of supplies.

PRESENCE OF LNG TERMINALS IN EUROPE - see Map into Image section