EN 
it
With a decree dated 12 August last, MITE positively concluded the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure for the coastal LNG storage facility in the port of Santa Giusta (Oristano) proposed by IVI Petrolifera. The last step for the realisation of the project is the authorisation by the same MITE, which has unified the environmental and industrial competences of the MISE.
The project involves the storage of LNG in nine tanks of 1,000 cubic metres each (for a total of 9,000 cubic metres), the distribution of the liquid methane and its regasification for injection into the city networks through twelve vaporisers, as reported by Staffetta Quotidiana.
The project was initially submitted in 2015 for the regional Environmental Impact Assessment, only to be resubmitted with changes to the national EIA in 2019. In the port of Santa Giusta Oristano, the coastal LNG storage facility Higas, of the international Avenir LNG Group, also with a capacity of 9,000 cubic metres, has already been active since May 2021, and an additional authorisation procedure is underway for the third facility proposed by Edison, with a capacity of 10,000 cubic metres, which was already authorised by the MISE in 2017.
If, in addition to Higas, the other two plants were built, the Port of Santa Giusta would have a storage capacity of around 28,000 cubic metres of LNG, becoming the main LNG hub in the Mediterranean. With fortnightly supplies, the three plants could have about 680,000 cubic metres per year, equal to more than 400 million cubic metres of compressed methane to supply Sardinia's city networks that are being prepared.
At the same time, the Provincial Industrial Consortium of Oristano has also applied for an environmental impact assessment to build the gas distribution network in the areas of the industrial agglomeration under its jurisdiction, which also includes the Port of Santa Giusta. The Santa Giusta town network is already supplied with methane from tankers.
Source: Staffetta Quotidiana
