Venice Energy is back in the groove at its delayed Outer Harbor liquefied natural gas import project in South Australia and is now aiming to take the final investment decision by August, with construction scheduled to start in October.

The company claims Outer Harbor will be the first LNG terminal in the world to operate exclusively on renewable energy.

Construction is expected to take around 12 months, suggesting operational start-up could yet be before the end of next year.

GasLog via a Heads of Agreement has been lined up to supply the floating storage and regasification unit for the South Australian LNG import project although the exact terms have yet to be finalised.

Paolo Enoizi, GasLog Partners chief executive, has said his company intends to convert one of its steam turbine propulsion LNG carriers into the FSRU for Outer Harbor. GasLog will also provide a technical support crew to operate the facility over the life of the operations.

“GasLog is a pre-eminent global player in the LNG sector and having their involvement in our project is a significant boost for us. They will bring both physical assets and technical expertise,” Venice’s managing director, Kym Winter-Dewhirst earlier said.

Venice’s Outer Harbor project can receive volumes from both the Northwest Shelf and Gladstone projects in Australia in addition to volumes from overseas liquefaction schemes.

It will also provide significant additional storage via its FSRU and through the SEA gas pipeline and by maintaining storage at the Iona underground storage facility west of Melbourne, Victoria, via regular shipments, especially during peak winter periods.

Meanwhile, Venice on Thursday said that a study conducted jointly with SEA Gas — owner of an approximate 680-kilometre pipeline between the states of Victoria and South Australia — confirmed the pipeline can be reconfigured to facilitate bidirectional flow between the states.

This means the proposed LNG import project in the Outer Harbor at Port Adelaide will ensure that both South Australia and Victoria can secure their gas supplies and avoid shortages, particularly during the peak [southern hemisphere] winter period, noted Venice.

Dewhirst, said last season’s gas shortages in the southeast of Australia, particularly in Victoria, would become a thing of the past once the project becomes fully operational in 2026.

“Most gas producers, analysts and regulators agree that domestic gas supplies in southeast Australia will fall significantly over the next decade as coal begins to exit the local market and gas becomes the primary back-up for renewable energy due to its intermittent nature,” he said.

“We believe that imported LNG provides insurance to energy supply companies as the nation makes its transition to a low carbon economy over the next 10 to 15 years and our LNG terminal will play a major role in that transition.”

Alongside the FSRU, there will be two new berths, cryogenic piping, gas loading arms and other infrastructure.

Before the project became derailed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the initial cargo had been expected into the FSRU and its connection to the SA gas network by end-2022 or early this year.