Sardinian Pipes/Regas Plan 'Advances'
Sardinia’s regional government in Cagliari said March 2 that plans to roll out natural gas infrastructure across the Italian island had been boosted following a meeting the previous day. However the national elections held March 4 may exert an impact.
Sardinia’s president Francesco Pigliaru, two of his senior officials, various companies involved, Italy’s environment ministry and the national energy regulator (Arera) met March 1.
Three months earlier Italian national gas system operator Snam and much smaller distributor Societa Gasdotti Italia (SGI) plus SGI’s shareholders Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 4 and Swiss Life Holding had agreed to jointly develop gas distribution infrastructure in Sardinia, to be supplied from likely third-party small LNG regasification units at Cagliari, Oristano and Porto Torres. The scheme is one likely to be dependent on EU co-funding.
On March 1, Snam and SGI told the regional government that the approvals process for their joint plan is “proceeding expeditiously” and that they are both finalising an agreement to set up a joint venture to build and manage the expected 600 km of pipelines, while Arera confirmed its willingness to fast-track any remaining assessments required.
Eni also told the meeting it is willing to make available to third parties its planned regas terminal at Porto Torres and to supply the Sardinian LNG market for two years at a price in line with gas on mainland Italy. Other investors present – understood to be local firms IsGas (at Cagliari) and HiGas (at Oristano) – also said they were willing to invest in regas units, the regional government said. The latter added that Italy’s economic development ministry and environment ministry, plus the region itself, “confirmed that they intend to promptly conclude authorisation procedures in progress.”
Sardinia is without gas today but it has 2,000 km of very localised distribution networks that supply liquid petroleum gas, according to Arera data from 2017.
But since the meeting, national elections on March 4 have reshaped Italy's wider political landscape: the centre-left government led since 2016 by Paolo Gentiloni looks unlikely to retain power, as two rival blocs – the populist eurosceptic Five Star Movement (FSM) led by Luigi Di Maio and right-wing anti-immigrant League led by Matteo Salvini – battle for control. The leader of Gentiloni's Democratic Party (PD), former prime minister Matteo Renzi, has stepped down because of its poor showing at the polls.
The elections were not for the regional government. However FSM won 41.4% of the March 4 vote in Sardinia, far ahead of the PD and right-wing League's votes. Pigliaru, who left the PD to stand as a centre-left independent in 2014, is thus weakened by the result.