Italian Minister for Economy: We Will Investigate Brindisi LNG Delays

Italian minister for economic development Corrado Passera has said that the Italian government will investigate the delays that caused British BG Group to withdraw from plans to build an LNG terminal in the Brindisi port.

Earlier this week, head of the Italian arm of BG Group, BG Italia, said the company would be pulling out from the €250 million project following delays of 11 years to secure the necessary permits and licences for the project.

"It is impossible to think that a big multinational company would have a project blocked for 11 years. There is a limit to everything," Luca Manzella told Il Sole 24 Ore on Tuesday. "The parent company, disappointed and discouraged by an endless standoff with Italian authorities … has decided to reconsider from the basis the feasibility of the investment."

A spokesperson for the BG Group confirmed that the company was freezing the project and was closing down its Brindisi office. The spokesperson also said that the company were considering suing the local authorities who delayed the project that could have served 10 per cent of Italy's gas needs a year.

Yesterday, Minister Passera said the delays were "unacceptably long" and vowed that the Italian government would investigate how the situation came about, the Telegraph (UK) reported. He said the government would seek to ensure that any similar development would not face the same kind of delays in the future.

He was joined by Italian Environment Minister, Corrado Clini, who said that large companies such as BG Group should have their applications dealt with in a quicker and more efficient manner.