Toscana News

Italy plans to boost its liquefied natural gas (LNG) import capacity to 27 billion cubic metres (bcm) from nearly 17 bcm currently as it seeks to completely replace Russian gas supplies following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.In 2021, Moscow provided Rome with 29 bcm of gas via pipelines, equal to around 40% of Italy's total imports but Russian supplies have fallen in recent months to around 10% of total imports. Italy, which can now count on three LNG terminals, has mandated gas grid operator Snam SRG.MI to buy and set up two additional floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) near the cities of Piombino and Ravenna.A timely start for the Piombino FSRU is crucial to allow Italy to fill gas storage facilities in time for winter 2023…

Carnival Cruise Line, also known as America’s Cruise Line, is teaming up with Italy's cruise line Costa Cruises, its sister company, to create a new concept for Carnival’s North American guests when Costa Venezia cruise ship joins the Carnival fleet sailing from New York in the spring of 2023. Costa Venezia will be followed by Costa Firenze arriving in the spring of 2024 to sail from Long Beach.Under the concept called "COSTA by CARNIVAL" Carnival will operate the ships, which…

Italian cruise line Costa Cruises on Thursday held a christening ceremony for its new flagship, the Costa Toscana, in the port of Barcelona, Spain.The LNG-powered, Italian-flagged ship sailed away from Civitavecchia, Italy on Monday, making a stop in Naples on Thursday, before arriving in Barcelona on Thursday for the christening ceremony. The 337-meter ship is one of the largest ocean liners and can accommodate 6,554 passengers. Chanel, a Cuban-Spanish singer, dancer, and actress…

Finland-based cruise shipbuilder Meyer Turku saw its full-year 2021 net loss widen, despite a somewhat higher turnover compared to 2020. Still, the company said it was a "satisfactory result in the midst of a protracted pandemic."The company's turnover was EUR 1.08 billion. It is somewhat higher than in the previous year, but the result for the financial year was a loss of EUR 17.0 million, Meyer Turku said.Tim Meyer, CEO said: “Exceptional times lasted longer than expected. The global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as labor and material mobility, affected our operations as well.

German shipbuilder MEYER WERFT announced Tuesday it has handed over the AIDAcosma to Carnival's German line AIDA Cruises. The 337-meter-long AIDAcosma runs on cleaner-burning liquefied natural gas (LNG). Sister ship AIDAnova, delivered in 2018, was the world's first cruise ship with this propulsion systemThe newbuild is the fourth cruise ship delivered by MEYER WERFT since the pandemic began.According to the yard, various effects of the pandemic have caused challenges on board the AIDAcosma in recent weeks. "Overall, however, we managed these well until the end.

Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku on Thursday announced it has delivered the 180,000 GT liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered cruise ship Costa Toscana to Costa Cruises. “With Costa Toscana we are turning a new page at the shipyard. We have been pushing our shipbuilding processes onward and are now seeing the results with this beautiful vessel. We are very proud of her and I feel confident that the guests onboard will really enjoy Costa Toscana in the coming years,” said Meyer Turku CEO Tim Meyer.The 337-meter…

The liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered, 185,000 GT cruise ship Costa Toscana was floated out to the outfitting pier at Meyer Turku shipyard on Friday. Due to harsh weather conditions, the filling of the dry dock started on Thursday.“As this is also the start of the final stage of shipbuilding, all the exciting colors, venues and features will start taking their final form. In the coming months she will be finalized at the pier and then tested and commissioned in the autumn for delivery…

Carnival Corporation's Costa Cruises brand said its liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered flagship Costa Smeralda has become he first vessel to bunker LNG in Italy.Carried out in the port of La Spezia and completed at 6 p.m. on Sunday, the operation was supported by the Italian Coast Guard, Port Authority of Eastern Ligurian Sea, local authorities and Shell, which is the LNG supplier partner for Costa Group and its parent company, Carnival Corporation.The operation took place with the ship berthed at Molo Garibaldi pier…

OLT Offshore LNG Toscana's floating regasification unit FSRU Toscana received its 100th LNG cargo via the ship-to-ship from the Bonito LNG carrier on July 31, 2020.Per the owner, OLT Terminal has, over the years, received LNG from the main exporting countries such as: Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands.The total quantity of LNG discharged so far is approximately 13.8 million liquid cubic meters…

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of OLT Offshore LNG Toscana by SNAM and the UK’s First State Investments International (FSI), under the EU merger regulation.According to the Commission, OLT is active in the management of a floating storage and regasification unit for liquefied natural gas in Italy.SNAM is the holding company of the Snam group, which is active in the development and integrated management of gas infrastructures and, in particular, in the transmission, regasification and storage of natural gas in Italy and other EU countries.FSI is a company within the asset management division of Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation…

Italian cruise line Costa Cruises said that Costa Smeralda is the first ship in the Costa fleet to be fueled by liquefied natural gas (LNG). "This is a step change for the cruise industry as a whole, guaranteeing a substantially reduced environmental impact," it said."Costa Smeralda is the first ship in the Costa fleet to be powered both in port and at sea by LNG, meaning improved air quality and protecting the environment with the virtual elimination of sulfur dioxide emissions (zero emissions) and particulate matter (95-100% reduction). The use of LNG will also greatly lessen emissions of nitrogen oxides (85% direct reduction) and CO2 (reduction of up to 20%)…

Finish shipbuilder Meyer Turku delivered liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fuelled Costa Smeralda to Italian owner Costa Cruises, a brand of Carnival Corporation.The brand's new flagship Costa Smeralda becomes Carnival Corporation's fourth new ship of 2019 and its second LNG-powered ship.Costa Smeralda is the first of two new sister ships for Costa Cruises that can be powered in port and at sea by LNG. The second vessel, Costa Toscana, is currently under construction at Meyer Turku and scheduled to be delivered in 2021.In total, following the delivery of Costa Smeralda and the launch of AIDAnova at the end of 2018 as the world's first cruise vessel to be powered by LNG…

Finnish shipyard Meyer Turku announced it has encountered more delays in the construction of a 180,000 GT cruise ship for Costa Cruises.Having already pushed back the delivery date from mid-October to mid-November, the shipbuilder said it now plans to hand over the newbuild Costa Smeralda in December 2019."The delay is due to the high complexity and the sheer size of the ship project," Meyer Turku said on Tuesday.Costa Smeralda features a liquefied natural gas (LNG) propulsion system and many sophisticated rooms with stage and audio/video equipment…

The steel cutting ceremony of the second Costa Cruises ship build at Meyer Turku commenced with new traditions: The brand new plasma cutter line was used for the first time in a production start ceremony.Costa Cruises’ Costa Toscana will be the first ship benefiting fully from the new panel line of Meyer Turku. The panel line is just one of the major over 100 million euro investments inside the steel halls, the whole shipyard going through an investment program of 200 million euros.

German energy group Uniper has concluded an agreement with Australian fund First State Investments to divest its stake in OLT Offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) Toscana.First State Investments will acquire Uniper’s entire OLT stake. The purchase price for Uniper’s stake amounts to approx. €400 million ($452 million) and will be adjusted at closing for any distributions already made to Uniper in 2018 and 2019. The resulting net proceeds at a closing later this year are expected to be at a level of approx. €340 million.Uniper has a 48.2% stake in OLT. OLT’s other shareholders are Italy-based IREN Group, which has a 49.1% stake, and Golar LNG, which has a 2.7% stake.OLT is the company that developed and operates “FSRU Toscana”, a floating storage and regasification unit.

Italian towing company Fratelli Neri S.p.A. has expanded its fleet with the delivery of three new Damen workboats. The trio of vessels will be based in the company’s home port of Livorno, on the Tuscan coast. Damen delivered all the vessels from stock;completing the final outfitting works within a timescale of three and a half months. This current delivery to Fratelli Neri consists of three different vessels. The first, an ASD 2913, was built at Damen Shipyards Galati. This vessel sailed from Romania to Italy on her own keel. The other two vessels – a Stan Launch 1305 and a Stan Tug 1606 – were being held on stock at Damen Shipyards Gorinchem in the Netherlands. Damen transported these two workboats to Livorno on a heavy-lift vessel.

Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices were steady this week amid limited trading activity. The price of Asian spot cargoes for February delivery was pegged at $6.90 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), in line with the previous week. Traders eyed developments in Nigeria where Eni has declared force majeure on loadings from the country's LNG export plant due to pipeline sabotage. All other suppliers continued to ship, although traders said the pace of loadings had slowed. "There's a slight backlog of vessels, they're not loading as quickly as they normally would," said a trader. Nigeria LNG's export plant at Bonny Island can produce 22 million metric tonnes of liquefied gas a year and has long-term supply contracts with buyers in Italy, Spain, Turkey, Portugal and France.

An accommodation ship, the SNAV Toscana is due at Lerwick on or around 6 March 2015 to supplement the floating accommodation at the port. Formerly operated as an Italian ferry, the 169 metre long ship is due to remain in port until the end of May 2015.  She will berth at Holmsgarth 5 and may be required to move off the berth on occasions to suit other vessel movements. Petrofac is bringing the 500 bed ship to Lerwick in support of the Shetland Gas Plant project.  SNAV Toscana joins three floating accommodation barges that continue in port – Bibby Stockholm, Kalmar and Sans Vitesse. SNAV Toscana is due to leave Naples in Italy this weekend.

The Coast Guard is searching for the master of a freight ship reported overboard approximately 60 miles east of Wake Island Sunday. Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center were notified at approximately 6 p.m. Saturday, regarding a 49-year-old male Polish national who was reported overboard from the 622-foot freight ship Toscana. The master was last seen at approximately 8 p.m. Friday. Twelve hours passed before the ship realized the crewmember was missing. An HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point was launched Saturday and is staging out of Wake Island to conduct the searches. The ship retraced its route to search for the missing crewmember, but has continued on to its next port of call in Yokohama, Japan due to fuel limitations.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. announced a definitive agreement with Princess Cruises, Ltd. to purchase Ocean Princess for its newly acquired Oceania Cruises brand. The 684-passenger ship, to be named Siren, joins Oceania Cruises' trio of recently refurbished sister ships Insignia, Regatta and Nautica. Upon delivery in March 2016, Sirena will immediately undergo a 35-day, $40 million refurbishment in Marseille, France to elevate the ship to the Oceania Cruises' standard of elegance.

The FSRU Toscana, the world’s first-ever floating Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) platform, has begun commercial operations off the coast of Italy, on schedule. However, before the 288-meter container ship, turned floating LNG storage platform, could begin operation as a regasification plant, it had to negotiate a perilous journey, being towed from Drydock World in Dubai to the Italian Coast, via the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal, protected by Drum Cussac security specialists. Drum Cussac’s Chief Operating Officer…

MARIN has upgraded two part task simulators into full tug simulators, which have  been used in training & studies for TOTAL, Port of Rotterdam, Meyer Werft and OLT Toscana, amongst others. For years MARIN’s Nautical Center has made extensive use of full mission bridge simulators for nautical studies and training and for many of these simulations tugs play an important role. Although it is possible to use computer (or autopilot) controlled tugs, it is preferable to have the tug masters themselves control the tugs.

The first module, the bogie support structure, standing 22 metres high, with a diameter of 30 metres and weighing 1300 tonnes will be transported to Korea to integrate with the Prelude FLNG vessel. Other modules will soon follow. The Prelude FLNG unit will be 488-metres long and when fully loaded will weigh more than 600,000 tonnes. It will be the largest structure ever sent to sea displacing as much water as a fleet of six aircraft carriers. The vessel is to work at the Prelude offshore field 200 kms from the Australian coast.