Until the Pitesai is issued, now under consideration by the Unified Conference, no one dares to bet a euro on current and possible future deposits, in the uncertainty that that euro will be wasted.
Everything matters
Italy burns about 70-75 billion cubic meters of gas a year. From January to September we used 53.2 billion cubic meters (+ 6.8% compared to the first nine months of 2020), of which 2.48 (-20.2%) extracted from fields in the Po Valley and from large fields of the Adriatic, in Basilicata and, to a limited extent, in Sicily. Imports come mainly from Russia, Algeria, by ship to the Rovigo regasification plant and from the new Tap pipeline.
The Assorisorse study
According to a study presented to the debate on Pitesai by Assorisorse, which brings together the mining industry, only on the gas fields of Emilia and Romagna both on the mainland and in the Adriatic, 322 million should be invested to double from 800 million to 1.6 billions of cubic meters a year the now tired production.
By extrapolation, in Italy it would take a couple of billion to extract about 10 billion cubic meters a year for ten years. Results far from 17 billion in 2000, but would make a contribution to national labor, companies, state coffers and the fight against emissions that heat the climate, instead of taking the foreign route to pay for imports along thousands of kilometers of high-pressure pipes. climate impact.
Frozen fields
It is not a question of drilling new reserves but only of updating the plants in the fields that are still active and reactivating the reserves that have been inactive for years. Some reserves are now dry, but several fields are still full of gas but have been blocked for years due to regulations, appeals, prohibitions and moratoriums.