Aker Kvaerner Wins Contract for Adriatic Sea LNG Terminal

Aker Kvaerner has been awarded a contract to perform front-end engineering design (FEED) work for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in the North Adriatic Sea. The FEED contract is worth around US $21 million.

"When approved, this will be the first offshore concrete LNG terminal in the world. A number of similar prospects are being considered. With our recent awards in the US and now in Europe, we believe we are well positioned in this new market," said executive vice president Simen Lieungh in Aker Kvaerner.

The terminal will be located 17 km from shore in waters 29 meters deep. The terminal will receive LNG shipped mainly from Qatar, regassify the products, and feed the gas through pipeline to the Italian gas distribution network.

The terminal has a storage capacity of 250,000 cubic meters in tanks in the concrete substructure, and it can regassify approximately 6 million metric tons of LNG per year.

"We have designed and built concrete gravity base structures for rough North Sea waters for three decades in Norway, and our Houston organization has broad experience in the design of LNG regassification plants. On the Adriatic LNG Terminal we will combine these skills in a completely new application. This is truly an exciting opportunity for us," Lieungh says.

The partners in the Adriatic LNG Terminal project include ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum, each with a 45 percent interest, and Edison, a major Italian energy company, which owns the remaining 10 percent interest. The FEED contract is signed by Aker Kvaerner Contracting AS, a company within the Aker Kvaerner group