There are over 90 billion cubic meters of methane at the bottom of the Italian sea. It can reach 120-130 billion, if we consider the potential resources of gas not yet ascertained. But they’ve been waiting there for years. Certainly two and a half years have passed since the moratorium on permits and concessions pending the Pitesai wanted by M5s began. There are plants blocked in the Upper Adriatic, in Emilia Romagna, off the coast of Ravenna and Comacchio. And again: in the Market off San Benedetto del Tronto and Alba Adriatica, suspensions in front of the Puglia and strong potential along the coasts of the Sicily. There is the case of Argo-Cassiopea, in the locality of Gela. Here Eni-Med in a joint venture with Edison aimed to invest up to 1.8 billion to exploit gas in the Sicilian channel, through 4 submarine wells connected to a treatment plant to be built in the perimeter of the refinery planted right in Gela.
ARRIVAL AT THE FINISH LINE
Now the “Plan for the Sustainable Energy Transition of the Eligible Areas”, the map of the possible activities, should have reached the goal of the ok of the local authorities. But in the meantime, business investments have almost disappeared. However, it would take years to restart the car.
At least one year to reopen the taps already available but temporarily closed. Much more to go fishing in a real gold mine. It is like sitting on a treasure that is worth at least 150 billion euros, considering the price of one cubic meter of gas, but letting others benefit. Croatia and Montenegro, for example, or Albania and Greece, which suck relentlessly from the same deposits at the bottom of the sea, but do it from their straw, on the other side of the Adriatic.
Today of those 120-130 billion cubic meters, Italy extracts only 3-4 a year. But it consumes over 70. What it lacks it buys abroad, from Russia, Qatar, Algeria, Norway and even the USA. To think that transporting all this gas still has a significant impact on the environment.
Italy could therefore produce at home at a cost of 5 cents and even resell part of it and earn a lot. Instead it is forced to buy at the price that the market decides. Yesterday a cubic meter of gas came to touch 140 cents. What is worse is that methane has also dragged electricity prices with it, well over 300 per megawatt hour. The hope for the next few months is that tensions between Russia and Ukraine will ease. Tensions that today lead to fear of interruptions in gas pipeline flows, in a period in which Europe is consuming stocks at a record pace. And maybe Germany’s okay could also get to NorthStrean 2, the new gas pipeline that connects Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, thus bypassing Ukraine. There are no requirements and doubts about safety remain, they say for now from Berlin.
However, Prime Minister Draghi has understood that there is no time to waste: a bill-saving structural plan must be implemented to protect Italy from an energy crisis that may prove to be longer than expected. Common purchasing and storage in Europe, a transformation of the pricing mechanism, together with a green tax for energy companies is part of the mission. Italy must be able to get hold of its gas fields.
THE STOPS AND THE TURN
The moratorium on drilling started in February 2019 has effectively frozen around 150 authorizations: 73 research permits already in force and another 79 for which the request was pending. Plus another 5 requests for “prospecting”, which always means “exploration of the subsoil”, but without the use of drilling machines. Yet already months ago, in April. it was understood that the air was changing when the environmental green light arrived for 10 projects to exploit the national methane and oil fields hidden in the Emilian subsoil (Po Valley and Siam companies) and under the Adriatic seabed (Po Valley and Eni) and the Strait of Sicily (Eni). In all, the different projects foresee the drilling of more than 20 new wells. 2022 is destined to be the year of the turning point. Because pushing for home gas extraction is the path that Draghi and Cingolani are determined to follow,
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