The enemy is around the corner: let's talk about thefts and frauds of LPG in bottles or tanks. A thriving market even if it has now come to the surface and ended up under the scrutiny of the Guardia di Finanza. The "game" is as simple as dangerous not only for pockets but also for safety of those who fall victim to it or become its accomplice. And it is facilitated by an enormously fragmented and divided market in the hands of 534 operators in Italy against the 5-10 present on average in other European countries.
The market leader with a turnover of approximately 500 million and an 18% share of a very fragmented market is Liquigas, the company managed for 30 years in a joint venture by the Zani family, through Brixia Finanziaria, with the Dutch SVH Energy which February 2018 took over the share of the Italian shareholders and became 100% owner of the company. Andrea Arzà was and remains the company's managing director as well as the vice president of Assogasliquidi and it is with him - engaged for years in the war against fraud - that we take stock of the problem, which returned to the attention of the news in mid-January for the seizure in Rome of 5.000 LPG cylinders containing over 50 tons of gas and which do not comply with the standards safety.
LPG THEFTS: 300.000 TONS ESCAPE SECURITY
“According to our estimates – says Andrea Arzà – we are faced with a parallel market which affects 20% of the LPG distribution market in cylinders or tanks. The phenomenon is mainly concentrated in central-southern Italy and is facilitated by the extreme fragmentation of the sector. To give a term of comparison, just think that more companies operate in Naples than in the rest of Europe and controls, the higher the number of micro-operators, the more difficult they are. In terms of quantity, the Italian market as a whole fluctuates between 1,5 and 1,6 million tons, equally divided between combustion and automotive uses. Here, we estimate that about 300 tons are supplied illegally”.
The phenomenon, therefore, is relevant in an indispensable sector in all those areas (and Sardinia is one of them) where the natural gas network does not arrive and which spread patchily throughout Italy. However, it must be said that the awareness campaign carried out by Liquigas – more than ever interested in defending regular business – is bearing its first fruits with theintensification of interventions by the Guardia di Finanza. What is illegality? “The cylinders – explains the CEO of Liquigas – are the property of the authorized distributors and are given free of charge to consumers. Once they run out, however, they are picked up by traders other than the licensed owners and are illegally filled or underfilled, thus generating a useful reserve to guarantee extra profits. All this allows for evade excise duties, VAT and corporate income taxes, generating unfair competition between honest and dishonest operators. Above all, this way the obligations on safety and testing are also evaded which are often at the origin of the explosions and fires reported by the news”. The same mechanism concerns the filling of the tanks. For honest companies, the damage is also reputational. Hence the advice to always contact the authorized distribution channels.
LPG, A BRIDGE TO ELECTRIC MOBILITY?
But what role can LPG play in the future while Europe and the world proceed at full speed towards the transition to renewable sources? For Arzà there is space and it is played out along the path towards the increasingly massive use of green energy. “There are no doubts – continues the CEO of Liquigas – that both LPG and LNG, liquefied natural gas, have an enormously lower impact both in terms of CO2 but above all of PM10 – the particulate matter which asphyxiates cities – compared to solid fuels such as coal and wood or liquids such as diesel and petrol". In the future the car will be electric but it will take time, he says, so that the new mobility is economically within everyone's reach. “So in our opinion it is also good to move towards electricity but the ideal solution should contemplate a basket of tools and technologies. The gaseous fuels that are the best bridge between the economy driven by fossil fuels and that dominated by renewable sources and already reduce CO20 emissions by 30 to 2%. Furthermore, the distribution network is extremely widespread and adapting it to the greater demand for automotive use would be simple and inexpensive”. The incentives of 6 thousand euros for the 2019 maneuver at the moment they only concern electric or hybrid cars but the Regions can also recognize concessions for other technologies that reduce emissions. But in this case, the effect will be patchy and not unique in overall Italy.
