Rovigo (Italy), June 20th, 2024 - Adriatic LNG, the company that operates the regasification terminal located off the Veneto coast, the most important LNG terminal in Italy and among the most important ones in the Mediterranean area, has launched the accreditation phase for Open Season 2024 aimed at operators of the natural gas market interested in acquiring medium to long-term regasification capacity.

With Open Season 2024 Adriatic LNG offers the market regasification capacity available in the period between January 2029 and December 2049.

Operators can apply by July 12th, 2024, to accredit themselves to participate in the binding phase of Open Season 2024, which will start on July 17th, ending on July 31st, 2024. To become accredited, operators must follow the instructions provided in the Notice of Initiation of the Annual Subscription Procedure and the Auction Application Rules, which have been made available on Adriatic LNG website. The auction will be subject to the terms and conditions detailed in the Auction Application Rules, the Regasification Code, and the bidding documentation published on the company's website.

Further details on the available LNG regasification capacity are included in the 2024 Offered Capacity Catalogue.

With a maximum regasification capacity of 9.6 billion cubic meters per year, a utilization rate over 88% in 2023 (above the average of European regasification terminals), and a regasification operation reliability rate of 99.6%, the Adriatic LNG terminal plays a strategic role in the Italian and European energy system. Furthermore, it is the only terminal in Italy able to receive LNG carriers up to 217,000 liquid cubic meters (so-called "super large-scale LNG vessels"), among the largest available in the market, with evident benefits in terms of optimizing discharged volumes.

The reliability and safety of operational activities, combined with the ability to provide innovative and flexible services to meet market demands, have enabled Adriatic LNG to allocate all available regasification capacity in previous auction sessions until December 2028. Additionally, Adriatic LNG allocated 2 billion cubic meters per year from January 2029 to December 2034, as well as 0.9 billion cubic meters per year with reference to the period January 2035-December 2042.

Alfredo Balena, Director of External Relations at Adriatic LNG stated: “With Open Season 2024, we aim to offer the opportunity to increase LNG imports and open new LNG routes to Italy and Europe, also considering the expected increase in global liquefaction capacity in the coming years. In this recent period of geopolitical turbulence, LNG has proven to be an essential energy resource due to its flexibility, reliability, and availability, particularly avoiding critical consequences in the European market following the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Furthermore, LNG can be strategic to ensure energy security during the transition to renewable and non-polluting energy sources”.

In this context, the authorization process for the project to increase the regasification capacity of the Adriatic LNG terminal by 0.5 billion cubic meters per year continues. This new capacity, which could be available starting in 2026, has already been allocated for the next 20 years. Recently, the Adriatic LNG project was excluded from the EIA procedure with requirements to comply with.