Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l.

A floating, full-featured terminal for liquefied natural gas is due to reach home, 15 km off Italy near Porto Levante, around Sept. 20, after a three-week journey from its construction yard in Algeciras, Spain. The owner says it is the first “offshore gravity-based structure in the world for the unloading, storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas.”

Weighing 290,000 tonnes, the 180-m-long, 88-m-wide and 47-m-tall Adriatic LNG terminal will be ballasted to the seabed 28 m down, to regasify 8 billion cu m of liquefied gas shipped from Qatar annually from next year.

Norway’s Aker Kvaerner A.S. managed construction under a $900-million EPC contract awarded in May 2004 by the owner, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l., a consortium of energy companies.

Spain’s Acciona Infrastructure S.A. built the prestressed concrete caisson and some equipment under a $200-million subcontract, involving 800 workers and lasting three years.