The hunt for that gas foreign government. Between Algeria, Angola, Congo, Qatar, Azerbaijan and US LNG, 20 of the 29 billion cubic meters arriving from Moscow today can be recovered. But there is another front, that of national gas production, where the government is exploring corrective measures and accelerators to truly meet the goal of increasing national production. The war emergency has in fact made this dossier more urgent, since Pitesai, the “Sustainable Energy Transition Plan of suitable areas” for methane exploration and production approved before the start of the war, has already created distortions: out of 123 mining concessions, including 108 in the gas sector, fall over 70% in areas defined as “unsuitable. Of these, 20 are revoked and 45 are verified. Not only. While active wells are running out of resources, there is no investment in other wells (42 exploration titles out of 45 are being revoked, including applications and permits) that can potentially replace the gas that has been “extinguished at sea and on land. In addition, as of today, 37 of the gas and oil applications submitted between 2004 and 2009 have already been rejected by Mite in accordance with the Pitesai. A paradox in times of expensive energy.
CHANGES
National gas production will reach 2.2 billion more within a few years, the government and in particular the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, promised in another decree of February 18 last year against the expensive energy. And that a few days after the approval of the Pitesai on February 12th. A plan weighed down by constraints and stakes that risk wiping out up to 1 billion cubic feet of gas production a year. The result is that if things don’t change, our gas production will take a step forward and a step back over the next two years. And the target of 5 billion total would be a very difficult target.
ACCELERATION
It is therefore a question of speeding up the process of starting production in the Sicilian Channel, where the Cassiopea project is located. And to do the same in other projects with potential, especially in the Marche. However, options and methods are also explored to offset the more rigid stakes envisaged by Pitesai, a document requested by the Conte government in its “No Drilling” strategy, which required a threeyear pregnancy and which, despite the the tightening imposed at the end of the year by Cingolani and the efforts of the technicians to correct certain overruns, however, created important bottlenecks for future production.
Not only. The beginning of the war in Ukraine on February 24 further changed the scenario, which had already changed at the beginning of the year in relation to the plan for a quick and not so painful transition. The emergency no longer allows operations and delays, according to several fronts in the government. And then the idea is that an ad hoc provision will intervene, if necessary, to deviate from the Pitesai. It is a question of not blocking investments by operators in the sector, which are essential at this time after, over the past 20 years, Minister Cingolani himself recently reminded the Chamber, “national natural gas production has fallen due to the natural decline of the fields and lack Investments in production and research from about 15 billion cubic meters to the current 3.3”. Hence the 95 percent dependence on foreign countries for gas consumption. 40 percent of consumption depends on Russia. But in 24 to 36 months “we can reasonably say that we can completely abandon our dependence on Russian gas, the minister reiterated yesterday.
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