Now the watchword is only one: do everything to keep the country alive. The theme of energy supplies andindependence from Russia has become central to the agendas of the Italian and European authorities and each front must be opened or strengthened or renewed, depending on the case, in the shortest time possible to face the energy crisis on which it weighs the Ukraine-Russia war. The other day the Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani said that the Government is working for free us from Russian gas in 24-30 months. There are many alternative possibilities to Russia.
The Tap is back in the news
Among the measures to be put in place, the prime minister, Mario Draghi, in the report to the Senate on 1 March, already spoke of a possible doubling the capacity of the Tap pipeline, the Trans-Adriatic pipeline, which came into operation at the end of 2020.
And just yesterday - Palazzo Chigi announced - there was a telephone conversation between Draghi and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev during which the further strengthening of bilateral cooperation, especially in the energy sector.
Tap, whose capital is held for 20% by the Italian company Snam and then by BP (20%), Socar (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%) is the pipeline that allows Europe to import natural gas extracted in Azerbaijan: it has a length of 878 km, crosses northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea and arrives at Melendugno in Puglia, where it connects to the Italian gas distribution network.
From 31 December 2020, when the first flows of gas departed from Azerbaijan, to 31 December 2021, TAP transported a total in Europe about 8,1 billion cubic meters standard. Of these, over 6,8 reached Italy at the Melendugno entry point, while around 1,2 supplied the Greek and Bulgarian domestic markets via the Nea Mesimvria interconnection point.
“This situation can be improved in successive steps with a target in the very short term and others in the medium-long term” says an industrial source close to the situation. “In the short term, the primary focus is on achieve full utilization of TAP's current capacity of 10 bcm/year based on signed long-term transportation contracts”. Possible further volumes could be available from the Caspian area during the year using the capacity offered by TAP through the auctions on the Prisma platform”.
But Tap's action may be doubled and therefore brought to 20 billion of cubic meters a year by 2027. "Having received the blessing from the political world, now we need to move on to commercial dynamics given that we are dealing with private investments" says the source.
Once a binding interest in purchasing new transportation capacity has been demonstrated, upstream producers will need corresponding new long-term gas supply contracts that guarantee their economic viability. TAP has made available to the market the possibility of accelerating the times by bringing forward the binding phase from July 2023 to July 2022,
La European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council have given Tap the status of 'Project of Common Interest' (Pci): the gas pipeline is considered functional for the opening of the Southern Gas Corridor, one of the 12 so-called 'energy corridors', considered priorities by the European Union for the achievement of energy policy objectives.
Government also committed to renewables
Also in the case of renewable energies, much can be done even in the short term, and some are already arriving signals from the government.
Elettricità Futura, the association - a member of Confindustria - which brings together over 500 Italian electricity companies, had recently asked the Government and the Regions to authorize the 60 GW of new renewable plants, equal to only a third of the connection applications already presented to Terna, in order to then be able to install them within 3 years, thus cutting Russian imports by 20%.
“We have to keep the country running by investing in the only Italian energies, renewables. We can do this by installing the first 60 GW of new renewables over the next 3 years. As we cut 20% of gas imports” says Agostino Re Rebaudengo, president of Elettricità Futura. “Then with another 60 GW of renewables over the next 3 years let's free Italy from dependence on Russia. We are getting good feedback from the Government regarding our proposal: a first step was the announcement of the strengthening of the operational capacity of the two Commissions Pnrr-Pniec and Via-Vas, the most important bodies for speeding up the authorization procedures for renewables. Now it would be necessary for the Government to evaluate the establishment of a Commissioner to manage this serious emergency with extraordinary protocols".
Increased gas production from Algeria
Another channel is the enhancement of gas production already in place. And in this case, Algeria is at the top of the list. In recent days, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Eni's CEO Claudio Descalzi have flowni in Algiers to talk about Transmed. About 10 billion cubic meters net of Eni passed through here last year (and the same number of other operators, Italian and foreign, as well as traders), but there is talk of the possibility of another 10 billion cubic meters which could arrive in Italy in the medium term.
Increased use of LNG terminals, a new one arriving this summer
Greater use of regasification terminals is another way to go, all the more so if thanks to them, liquid gas can be purchased wherever you want and where the most favorable conditions will exist.
Cingolani spoke of this too, anticipating that a new regasification terminal will arrive this summer which will be added to the three already existing. Right now, "we have three that are running at 60 percent of their operating capacity, and they may shortly be upscaled to higher efficiency and thus produce more gas," he said. "After that, we will already install a first floating regasification plant by half of this year" and, he added, "then we will build other infrastructure in the next 12-24 months"
The first regasification terminal built in Italy was the Panigaglia plant in Liguria (3,5 billion cubic meters per year, owned by Snam). In Tuscany there is the Olt structure (3,75 billion cubic meters of authorized capacity per year, 49,07% owned by Snam, 48,24% by the Australian fund First Sentier Investors and 2,69 .8% by the shipping company Golar Lng. Finally, the largest is the Adriatic Lng (15 billion cubic meters per year), off shore, about 7,3 kilometers from the coast, in the province of Rovigo where Snam has 70,7 .22%, ExxonMobil XNUMX% and Qatar Petroleum XNUMX%.
The total capacity of these three regasification terminals is about 20% of the national requirement and increasing it is possible even if it will depend on the availability of supplies. Therefore “we will put our regasification plants at full capacity, taking liquid gas from the United States, Canada and North Africa, with a contribution of around 5 billion cubic meters this year”.
A great contribution could also come from Qatar, second stage of the Di Maio-Descalzi duo, increasing the quantity of LNG by another 3 billion cubic meters compared to the almost 7 billion that Doha already guarantees to Italy and which are mostly processed by the Rovigo regasification terminal. "I spoke on the phone with the Emir of Qatar, Al Thani, with whom I discussed in particular how to strengthen energy cooperation between our countries," Prime Minister Draghi said in a joint statement with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen , before their meeting in Brussels.
There is no mention of the reopening of old coal plants
Instead of reopening old coal-fired plants, as some hypothesized with reference to those of La Spezia, Fusina and Brindisi, at least for the moment, there is no talk of it at all, while if anything, it is possible to strengthen those already existing in Civitavecchia and Brindisi. These "are still in operation and could be sent to full capacity," said Cingolani. “We do not reopen anything, we do not reopen the plants that are closed because the company would not be worth the expense. It is simply a possibility in the event of an emergency that is much stronger than the current one and limited in time".
In Italy, the total consumption of natural gas, according to estimates, amounts to 71,5 billion standard cubic meters (scm) used in part to meet consumption and the rest set aside in storage sites.
The demand for natural gas is met for about 5 percent from domestic production and for the remainder from imports.
I major gas exporters towards Italy are: Russia with 33,4 billion Smc (46%), Algeria with 13,4 billion Smc (18,8%), Qatar with 6,5 billion Smc (9,2%), Norway with 6,1, 8,7 Smc (5,7%) and finally Libya from which we import 8 billion Smc (XNUMX%).
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