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Italians stage rally against regasification plant

Friday, 21 October 2022 2:11 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 21 October 2022 2:11 AM ]

Max Civili
Press TV, Piombino

On Wednesday, about 3,000 people took to the streets of west-central Italy's town of Piombino to stage a rally against the outgoing government's plan to install a floating regasification terminal in the port.

Italy has been struggling with increased energy costs as wholesale gas prices have surged to unprecedented levels across Europe since the start of the conflict in Ukraine and a new regasification plant is part of a Mario Draghi executive's plan to ease the energy crisis.

In an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Italy has increased gas imports from Algeria while opting to expand its regasification capacity. If the government gets the go ahead on the regasification project a floating storage unit will be placed in the small port of Piombino.

The floating storage unit would have a five billion cubic meter capacity and - according to the government's plan - it would be connected with the country's gas network by the spring of 2023 an event that is very unlikely to happen according to experts.

Italy has an annual consumption of about 75 billion cubic meters of gas. Of this, around 30 billion cubic meters used to come from Russia. People from Piombino have staunchly opposed the project for months, staging more than 30 protests in the span of five months.

The outgoing government has also picked the city of Ravenna as a site for a second regasification plant with construction works set to the start in the first four months of 2023. A decision over the project in the port of Piombino could come as soon as Friday.

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