MILAN (Reuters) – Itay’s Snam will select the offshore website for its new floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) within the subsequent 100 days, Italy’s particular commissioner for the mission mentioned on Friday, with its preliminary location already going through a authorized problem.

Underneath the federal government’s plan to diversify power provide away from Russian fuel, Italy’s fuel grid operator plans to moor the newly-bought FSRU within the port of Piombino, on Italy’s west coast, for the following three years.

After this era, it has dedicated to maneuver the floating liquefied pure fuel (LNG) terminal to an offshore vacation spot that it was anticipated to call on Friday.

“Snam is discovering an answer… the group requested for 150 days of extension. That is too lengthy, I am going to give Snam a further 100 days to search out an offshore website that may hopefully be away from the Tuscan coast,” state-appointed commissioner for the mission Eugenio Giani mentioned.

Giani can be the president of Tuscany, the place the port of Piombino is situated.

The delay has triggered criticism by Piombino’s Mayor Francesco Ferrari, who has been main the opposition towards the deliberate new infrastructure.

“The extension granted to Snam is ridiculous… the chance is that the ship will stay in our port for longer and that is unacceptable,” Ferrari mentioned in a press release.

Piombino’s mayor, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy celebration, launched a authorized problem towards the FSRU final month.

The enchantment to an Italian administrative courtroom features a precautionary request to droop work to arrange the vessel, on which the courtroom is anticipated to rule at a preliminary listening to scheduled for Dec. 21.

Preliminary work to organize the positioning has been persevering with, with a decent deadline to have it prepared by April in an effort to assist Italy import fuel to organize for subsequent winter.

“Snam’s dedication to relocate the vessel away from the port of Piombino after three years is confirmed,” Snam’s FSRU Italia Managing Director Elio Ruggeri instructed Reuters on Friday.

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“We have to full our evaluation concerning the mooring system for the FSRU and seek for different potential offshore places additionally different to the coast of Tuscany,” Ruggeri mentioned.

The group is taking a look at the potential for transferring the vessel to an offshore website in central or northern Italy to keep away from congestion on the fuel transport community connecting the south of Italy to the northern areas the place the various producers are situated, he added.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Silvia Ognibene; Modifying by Keith Weir)