Italy’s push to build new liquefied natural gas terminals despite sliding demand risks creating redundant infrastructure, according to a study.
Consumption of the super-chilled gas may be less than a third of Italy’s import capacity by 2030, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said Monday in a report. Italian demand plunged 19 percent between 2021 and 2024, while LNG import capacity is set to triple in the five years through 2026.
As Europe diversified away from Russian gas amid the war in Ukraine, nations from Italy to and Greece invested heavily into new LNG import terminals. But record prices during the energy crisis reduced consumption from industry that’s unlikely to return anytime soon even if costs have dropped since.
“Incentives to invest in infrastructure must be driven by demand,” said Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, IEEFA lead energy analyst for Europe. “In the case of Italy, it’s currently the other way around.”
Italy’s gas network owner Snam SpA is the main beneficiary of new capacity encouraged by the current regulations, IEEFA said. The company owns 61 percent of Italy’s operational LNG terminals and 100 percent of two planned import facilities.
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