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A recent survey conducted by the specialized online magazine The Medi Telegraph addresses the issue of the "delay" in the availability of LNG in the port of Genoa, while more and more ships that can dock Ligurian ports have chosen to use this fuel. In six months the permitted sulfur content of petroleum fuels cannot exceed 0.5%, compared to 3.5% currently used in the open sea. The survey focuses on the projects of the Genoese shipowner Ottavio Novella Spa and of AutogasNord Spa which posed the problem and developed projects.
"The use of LNG is set to grow, but Italy is not ready, it does not have the infrastructure, and this limits the potential of the market. I wish we could get out of this problem with no offer or demand." Valeria Novella, commercial manager of the family company, declares. With the Port Authority the two companies would have identified more than one area suitable for hosting an LNG deposit, but for now it is preferred not to indicate them. In recent years, several sites have been hypothesized that have never found unanimous consent.
The project would have a capacity of 10 thousand cubic meters of LNG, with the possibility of doubling it. It can be supplied, about once a month, by sea, by gas tankers coming from the large deposits of the regasification plants of Marseille, Barcelona or Zeebrugge, and it will supply ships. The goal, explains Valeria Novella "is to supply both ships and trucks, a sector where LNG is growing strongly".
The two companies, continues Valeria Novella, are ready to face the investment directly: "About 50 million to build the plant and the same amount of money to build the new gas tanker". The Cosulich Group, a Genoese shipowner of Trieste origin, has also entered the alliance, and Eni also seems interested in making a contribution. "It does not take much to predict that LNG will grow quickly even in the naval sector, because at the moment it is by far the solution that best meets the new international rules" says the company representative.
Costa Crociere owned by Carnival Group is about to launch its first LNG-powered ship in October, and has signed an agreement with Shell, which controls several plants in the Caribbean, the Arabian Sea, the Mediterranean (Egypt): "When these and other future ships will call at Genoa or Savona, they will not be able to obtain LNG, and we will be closed to a market. We need to wake up" added Valeria Novella.
Source: The Medi Telegaph