They shipped it to the other side of the world. Last night, the Golar Arctic, the ship to be transformed into a regasifier for Sardinia, sailed in the narrow waters of the Panama Canal, between Costa Rica and Colombia. Nine thousand kilometers from the Portoscuso quay, where Snam wanted to let it enter at all costs, despite an inaccessible port, without a useful seabed to tow that giant of the seas. Shipped to the edge of the universe, despite the fact that the state-owned company bought it for the impressive sum of 269 million euros, an unprecedented blow of money, as many as would have been needed to launch a serious energy revival plan for the Island.

Energy drift

A journey without a destination, given that the satellite transponder declares that the ship is headed for the Panama Canal, which means that it could stop in limbo between the Caribbean Sea and the tax haven islands of the Caymans, certainly not en route to Portoscuso. A journey into the unknown that seems to coincide with the shipwreck route that the state has traced for Sardinia, the only region in Europe without gas and without an energy future. An increasingly confused route, with skids that are more suited to a perverse slalom, traced by amateurs in disarray unable to face and resolve strategic and relevant issues. Provided that the objective was not exactly to send Sardinia into an energy drift, under the aegis of strong powers and the complicit silence of institutions at all levels.

The blitz of Arera

Certainly in the next few hours, regulatory authorities and state companies will try in every way to write the final epitaph-obituary for the project to bring gas to Sardinia. The blitz is scheduled for tomorrow, when the deadline that Arera, the Energy Authority, has secretly set for the energy companies to present new plans for Sardinia will expire, all of which will have to be rewritten downwards, even canceling the Golar Arctic, which Snam had bought last year, anticipating the same government decree on the gas plan for the island. Heavy winds are blowing over Sardinia, not only because the Government of Rome continues to ignore the Region, but also because to date there is not the slightest glimmer of the Viale Trento action plan to avert yet another attack on the energy autonomy of the Island. The result obtained by the Regional Attorney at the Council of State, with the overturning of the scandalous sentence of the Lazio TAR on the decree of the President of the Council of Ministers, risks being useless if a serious, clear energy proposal is not put on the table in Rome , defined and authoritative for the future of Sardinia.

On the head of the Sardinians

The reality is more serious than one might think: in fact, everything is being decided on the head of the Sardinians without any involvement of the regional institutions. The letter that we have come into possession of is, in fact, reserved for the few state companies involved in the implementation of the government's wicked plan to isolate Sardinia and make it totally dependent on the outside. Andrea Oglietti, who is the director of Arera, the energy regulation body, writes and signs it.

Secret letter

The passages of the letter are all aimed at demonstrating that the plans presented to date by Snam & company have no foundation, without documented support from a potential market that justifies those investments in terms of costs and benefits. In practice, Arera argues that there is not a sufficient and justifiable number of Sardinian users capable of "paying" for investments, not even the minimum ones assumed by energy companies. The conclusion of the reasoning is one of "energy discrimination": the plans for Sardinia and the Sardinians must all be rewritten downwards, starting with the construction of a floating regasification terminal, such as the one envisaged in the Golar Arctic, the vessel costing a fortune and now shipped to borders with the Caribbean.

The circle closes

That the circle is closing can be seen from the peremptory terms of the confidential letter: «Based on the above, your companies are asked to send a new version of the scenario documents on the "virtual pipeline" as soon as possible, however no later than January 13, 2023". A game, that of energy, which is, therefore, consuming in these hours with new scenarios, all downwards, imposed by Arera, but probably suggested by the most important players in this affair, coincidentally all state-owned companies, from Snam to Eni, from Enel to Terna.

Ultimatum

So 24 hours to cancel investments and strategy, even at the cost of failing to comply with what was written in the same Draghi decree with which Sardinia was commissioned. From Arera's communication, in fact, it is clear that that provision had been adopted on far-fetched projects, worthy of a real state of confusion. Under accusation are the same implementation plans prepared by Terna and Snam for that decree, already devastating in itself for Sardinia. The Authority writes: "These documents, together with the summary report of the observations received and the rebuttals of the managers, were examined during the Authority Meeting in which the person in charge of the procedure informed the Authority's Board of the need to further insights on the assumptions considered for the purpose of defining the reference energy scenarios, as well as on the optimal infrastructural configuration for the virtual connection".

All to be redone

Translated from bureaucratese, it means everything to be redone. And the reasons are real sentences without appeal. At the basis of Arera's reasoning there is one datum above all that emerges disruptively: the examination of the cost-benefits. The position of the gentlemen of the Authority can be summarized: it is not convenient to carry out the planned works and therefore Sardinia must remain without gas. A purely economic-commercial reasoning, which further worsens an indication already contained in the Draghi decree itself with which the aim was to serve only a small part of the island, ignoring a large part of the regional territory, devoid of backbones and networks.

From low cost to nothing

If Draghi was aiming for a low cost hypothesis, the minimum possible, now Arera is actually calling for the cut of even the minimum. And where the Authority wants to go with it can be seen from the explicit request made to the state companies invited "to provide more information on the demand for gas in Sardinia by assessing the penetration of natural gas in recent years and developing a sensitivity analysis of the demand on the basis of the gas price also taking into account the recent market dynamics».

Industry, the doubts

The Authority casts doubt on the very cost-effectiveness of gas for the Sulcis industrial area, asking Snam to provide more information on the functions used to estimate demand for residential and industrial uses, in particular linked to the aluminum sector and for maritime transport. In other words: your forecasts are oversized compared to current trends, including doubts about the recovery of the metallurgical supply chain. The invitation to amend the provisions of the Government decree is explicit: «It is deemed appropriate to ask the company Snam for a new version of the document on the virtual pipeline (the virtual gas network) which also evaluates alternative solutions to those proposed, possibly different from those provided for by the Decree of 29 March 2022".

Based in Oristano

Lastly, Arera goes so far as to completely reject the floating regasification terminal at Portovesme, to open up the hypothesis of creating a single supply point in Oristano for the south and center of the island: «In particular, we point out the opportunity to evaluate among the various conceivable alternative solutions a solution that considers a single terminal for the southern and central area due to the fact that the ship-regasifier already identified for the south, the Golar Arctic, with a storage capacity of between 120,000 and 140,000 meters cubes of LNG is already oversized even with respect to non-conservative demand forecasts». Practically rejected: oversized and useless. And, in fact, for now it is sailing in the Caribbean seas, so adrift is Sardinia's energy future.

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