Snam: the BW Singapore regasifier to arrive in Italy by the end of the year. Here is how it will work
The ship will help strengthen energy security and provide regasification capacity of 5 billion cubic metres
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2' min read
Arriving in Italian waters by the end of the year will be the BW Singapore, the regasification vessel purchased by Snam in July 2022 at the request of the government - together with another unit, already operational in Piombino - with the aim of strengthening Italy's energy security. The Bw Singapore can operate both as an LNG carrier for transporting liquefied natural gas and as an Fsru, a floating and regasification storage unit. The ship, built in 2015 and now owned by the group led by Stefano Venier, has a storage capacity of around 170 thousand cubic metres of liquefied natural gas and a regasification capacity of around 5 billion cubic metres.
The BW Singapore sketch
.At 293 metres long and 43 metres wide, the BW Singapore is equipped with dual fuel engines, i.e. it has a dual diesel and gas system to produce all the energy the ship needs for both propulsion and regasification. The latter rests on six regasification trains, each equipped with a high-pressure pump and a vaporiser where the liquefied natural gas is vaporised by exchanging heat with seawater. The water needed for the regasification process is taken from the sea and sent via the three pumps to the vaporisers and then returned to the sea again.
What will happen to the ship once it arrives in Ravenna
.Once the ship arrives in Ravenna, it will be moored at the Petra platform, located offshore Punta Marina and built in the late 1980s to receive oil tankers and recently refitted. The Fsru will be able to receive and regasify the LNG and then transfer it to a new pipeline that will convey it to the interconnection point with the national gas pipeline network, located about 42 kilometres from the mooring point, north-west of the city. The unit is scheduled to be commissioned by the first quarter of 2025.
The role of LNG
.As for the contribution that BW Singapore will be able to guarantee, the share of LNG now stands at about a quarter of the country's gas supplies, in line with 2023 and up from 18% in 2022 and 11% in 2021, and confirms the crucial role of this carrier, which steadily represents Italy's second source of gas supply after the three southern pipelines (Mazara, Melendugno, Gela).
