Edison announces the arrival in Italy of the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, associated to the contract with Venture Global. The LNG carrier Elisa Aquila, available to Edison fleet for the transport of LNG, after loading the gas from the Calcasieu Pass facility – in Cameron Parish in Louisiana – and two weeks of sailing, unloaded in the past few hours at the Piombino terminal approximately 165,000 liquid cubic meters of LNG to be regasified and introduced into the national network.
«The start-up of the first long-term LNG contract with the United States marks a fundamental step in the security of Italian energy supply and in the strategy of diversification and review of our industrial portfolio», says Fabio Dubini, Executive Vice President Gas & Power Portfolio Management & Optimization of Edison. «With the first unloading of American LNG in Piombino, the contract signed in 2017 came into operation, responding to the objective of increasing the flexibility of our gas portfolio through growing shares of LNG, to promptly adapt the offer to the demand of markets and customers and to reduce the related geopolitical risks. An industrial choice that demonstrates our responsibility as an operator committed to ensuring the resilience and competitiveness of the national energy system».
Under the long-term contract with Venture Global, Edison will withdraw 1.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year (equivalent to 1 million tons of LNG) from the Calcasieu Pass plant, using its two 174,000 cubic meter capacity LNG carriers, for a total of 14 cargoes per year. With the launch of the new supply route, Edison is strengthening its position on the Italian market, through a broad and diversified portfolio of long-term supplies. Today, Edison imports approximately 14 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year into Italy, with import contracts from Qatar (6.4 billion cubic meters), Libya (4.4 billion cubic meters), Algeria (1 billion cubic meters), Azerbaijan (1 billion cubic meters) and the United States (1.4 billion cubic meters), meeting 23% of domestic demand.
In Edison’s strategic vision, LNG is functional to increasing supply flexibility, adapting the industrial portfolio to the actual speed of implementation of the energy transition. In fact, gas will continue to play an essential role in the coming decades in accompanying the growth of renewable energy and the electrification of final consumption. In this context, LNG will allow the offer to be rapidly adjusted to the actual European needs. Furthermore, LNG allows for an increase in the diversification of supply sources and routes, limiting the risks associated with inflows via physical infrastructures, such as gas pipelines, from countries most exposed to geopolitical crises or internal tensions. A strategic vision that Edison has supported for a long time and that has led it to build the first offshore regasification plant in the world, the one off the coast of Rovigo, where since 2009 it has imported 6.4 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Qatar.
Confirming its crucial role in ensuring national energy security, Edison, with its 2030 Strategic Plan, aims to maintain a 20% market share in the supply sector, through a portfolio of long-term contracts of between 13 and 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas and the gradual entry of green gas, such as biomethane, Bio-LNG and hydrogen. Furthermore, Edison aims to use LNG also for the energy transition of heavy and maritime transport. LNG is, in fact, an alternative fuel in line with European and international energy transition commitments, which allows for a significant reduction in various emission factors, with the elimination of sulfur oxides and particulate matter (PM) and the reduction of nitrogen and carbon dioxide emissions. A fuel that complies with the limits imposed by the International Maritime Organization for the transit of vessels in sulfur emission control areas (Seca areas), of which the Mediterranean has become part since May 1, 2025. This is why Edison has created the first integrated LNG logistics chain in Italy for sustainable transport, building a small-scale coastal depot in the port of Ravenna and a 30,000 cubic meter capacity methane tanker dedicated to its supply and ship refueling operations.
Edison informs that the arbitration initiated at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) in London, for violation of the contractual terms by Venture Global, continues. In fact, in 2023 the company took legal action given the continuing delays in the start of LNG supplies by the American operator.
Source: Edison