Italy's 3.8mn t/yr Ravenna floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) import terminal sold only one regasification slot in recent auctions for June-September capacity.
Terminal operator Snam offered regasification slots for the remainder of the gas year in May, but only one slot for 15-24 June has sold in the first round of auctions, despite Italy's PSV hub third-quarter price having last closed at a $1.04/mn Btu premium to the equivalent Dutch TTF contract.
Italy's three largest import terminals — the 7.5mn t/yr Adriatic LNG, 3.8mn t/yr Piombino LNG and same-sized Offshore LNG Toscana — are already completely subscribed for the remainder of the gas year.
The slot reportedly sold for $2.9mn, without accounting for any variable costs, market participants said. Ravenna incurs a 2pc gas-in-kind cost of the total cargo, based on data from Snam.
Assuming a cargo of 72,000t, gas-in-kind costs would total 1,440t of LNG, or about $862,000, based on Argus' latest Italian month 1 delivered cost of $11.464/mn Btu. Combined with the slot cost, this totals $1/mn Btu and does not account for other additional costs such as port fees, import tax and grid entry costs.
The Italy July des price was last assessed at a $1.43/mn Btu discount to the PSV July contract, suggesting that further marginal costs beyond the $2.9mn slot fee and $862,000 gas-in-kind cost may have breached 43¢/mn Btu, making buying directly from the PSV hub more profitable than importing LNG through Ravenna.
