The Italian city of Livorno, on Italy's central west coast, has been at the center of many LNG proposals. In May 2004, the Offshore LNG Terminal (OLT) consortium received environmental approval for its proposed LNG receiving terminal near Livorno, OLT, composed of Golar LNG and Italy's CrossGas, plans to permanently moor a standard LNG tanker offshore, convert it into a floating storage and regasification unit, then connect it to the coast via a sub-sea Pipeline. Once completed, the Livorno offshore facility will have an initial capacity of 290-Mmcf/d.

A consortium of BP, Edison, and chemical company Solvay plan to construct a 290-Mmcf/d LNG terminal on the site of a former Solvay chemicals plant near Livorno. In January 2005, Italy's environmental ministry approved plans for the construction of the project.

 

However, local government leaders have expressed opposition to the project, which could delay its planned initial production date of 2012. Spanish electricity utility Endesa has also expressed interest in building an LNG receiving terminal in Livorno to feed its Italian power plants, though it has not yet announced any concrete plans to build such a facility.

In March 2005, Spain's Gas Natural (GN) presented plans to local officials for the construction of two LNG receiving terminals in Italy, located in the northern city of Trieste and the southern port of Taranto. Under its proposal, GN would build facilities at each location with production capacities of 770 Mmcf/d each in order to fuel its plans to expand its presence in the Italian Natural Gas market. GN planned to complete the projects by 2009.

 

Royal Dutch/Shell also announced in March 2005 that it would partner with Italy's ERG to build an LNG receiving terminal next to ERG's Oil refinery at Priolo Gargallo, Sicily. Shell stated that, pending approval of government officials, it would begin construction of the $510 million, 770-Mmcf/d facility by 2007, for completion in 2010.