They will have to pay the royalties and without many other chances to win it. The oil companies engaged in extraction in Basilicata have lost their appeal before the Council of State on the commission recognition mechanism. A battle with many implications, which in March 2016 had an initial outcome in favor of the companies with a ruling by the Lombardy Regional Administrative Court. Eni, Shell, Edison had been right about how to calculate the money to pay. The Region with other institutional subjects had appealed to the Council of State obtaining in the meantime the suspension. With yesterday's pronouncement, the accounts are beginning to be redone of what will enter Basilicata's coffers and initial estimates speak of around 10 million euros a year.
The determination with which Basilicata has engaged face to face with the companies is part of a plan to claim the territories in which raw materials are extracted. Strategic sector in which both the Ministries of Economic Development and the Economy and the Energy Authority intervene with their own measures. The dispute arises from the parameter on which to calculate the economic value of the considerations. For the companies it was correct to link it to the so-called Pfor index, which considers the price of gas on the market in the short term and not instead to the QE which contemplates the prices of oil and other fuels. The QE is from 1996, the Pfor is from 2013. The first is considered more realistic and "compensatory". It is understandable, therefore, that the different calculation system led to different disbursements by the companies in favor of the State. The judges write that the pecuniary consideration deriving from the concessions would lead the companies to pay more sums than they actually earn in the medium term.
The approximately 70-page ruling thoroughly examined the scenario that will impact both onshore and offshore mining from now on. The issue had also surfaced during the referendum on drilling, as compensation for the granting of authorisations. But authorizations cannot be denied in principle, as long as the environment and the landscape are protected, the distance rules for marine drilling are respected and, last but not least, there is wise recognition for the exploitation. As often happens, it is the judges who clarify and to say how the State (here it is Basilicata) cannot lose money because "if the concessionaires' theses prevailed, the market would unilaterally decide the value" of the extraction.
