“If Italy had had a national energy plan, today we would not be in full emergency: instead the government is intervening to maximize the available energy and at the same time build a new plan”, says Stefano Cao, 70, over 40 years old to deal with gas and oil infrastructures between Saipem and Eni.
“Italy has no capacity of its own, so it has to maximize infrastructure. We only have 3 regasifiers, now a fourth has been approved in Porto Empedocle, but it takes at least 3 or 4 years to build it. If there was a ready-made floating regasification terminal, however, it would only have to be brought “.
But why haven’t we built more infrastructure?
“Because we have been coming for 6 or 7 years in which there was a large amount of oil and gas at very low prices, so there was no incentive to invest. The mistake was to believe that the low prices would last forever. It is then added that many investments were then diverted to renewables. The result is that when you don’t invest resources become scarce. And dear. To this have been added the effects of the war ».
There is talk of doubling the Tap.
«The Tap is an excellent example of our delay: we have been talking about it since the middle of the first decade of this century, but we managed to put it into production in 2021. It can double the transport capacity, but it takes 3 or 4 years. The EastMed, the submarine gas pipeline from Israel to Italy would carry the large quantities of gas discovered in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Egypt and Cyprus. There is no big market in that area and it makes sense to build a gas pipeline to Puglia. The moral? The more diversified the source, the less one is subject to blackmail and the less expensive gas is used from time to time. Spain and Portugal have built many regasifiers and are much more flexible; France has nuclear power. Germany is like us ».
So we have to change strategy, better to focus on redundancy, even if more expensive, instead of optimizing investments?
«The system must be redundant and Italy must promote this strategy. An example of incredible diversification? Snam when it signed the first contract with Algeria in 1978, signed in the period in which the routes from Russia and the North Sea were already developing. I was the foreman on board the ship laying the pipes. But the government should also maximize the production of Italian gas, which pays taxes in Italy, pays royalties, creates jobs and pollutes less because we don’t have to transport it from afar. Once we produced 20 billion cubic meters of gas, now 3 billion … ».
How much gas is there in Italy?
“We don’t know until there is a lot of seismic prospecting of the subsoil and then the wells. Where? Certainly in the Adriatic, where we have historically produced gas. The discovery of Eni’s Zohr offshore field in Egypt came after several dozen sterile wells ».
Will this emergency eventually slow or accelerate the energy transition?
«The energy transition is inevitable, the issue is how we get there. If we stop fossil fuels, but then we’re not ready with renewables, it doesn’t work. Better to focus on renewables but continuing to increase the availability of gas in Italy, equipping ourselves with many infrastructures and maximizing Italian gas production ».
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