The government gives the green light to the drilling of hydrocarbons in Italy and in the territorial waters of the country, to relaunch gas production and replace what no longer arrives from Russia. The decision, which challenges the opposition of environmentalists, was announced yesterday at a press conference by Prime Minister Meloni and by the Ministers of the Economy Giorgetti and of the Environment Pichetto Fratin. Many of the fields closed in previous years will soon start again, increasing the national production of methane by two billion cubic meters. Furthermore, the limit of exploration, up to 12 miles prohibited until now, drops to nine.
Approximately 40 oil and methane research permits (not yet of industrial extraction) are on the waiting list in the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea, but also in various locations on the mainland, including the Po Valley which has been exploited for half a century but is all now credited with hidden resources. However, the Minister of Enterprises, Adolfo Urso, had pointed out the other day that “gas extraction can increase even without the need for new drilling”, simply by adjusting the fields that already exist. The legislation in force in recent years has prevented not only drilling but also the works on the existing platforms which are necessary to guarantee the continuity of production. Put simply, in the recent past maintenance “coupons” have been prohibited or discouraged; now, by removing these restrictions, an additional 2 billion cubic meters per year can be obtained, obtaining results within a period varying between 6 and 18 months depending on the individual plants on which to get their hands.
Having 2 billion cubic meters more may not seem like much, but if you consider with how much effort and how hard the Draghi government has gone around the world to scrape up a few billion cubic meters more, it is clear that every increase is valuable. A similar reasoning, on a larger scale, can be made for real new drilling: again in the evaluation of the ministry, by going fishing in the methane basin in the Adriatic that Italy has in common with Croatia it will be possible to obtain at least another 70 billions of cubic meters of gas, but this is based on studies from 20 years ago; with the new technologies and at the increased prices that there are now, new methane resources will become accessible, perhaps 300 billion cubic meters, according to an unofficial assessment by Nomisma Energia.
Overall, 7,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in Italy in one hundred and fifty years, and 300 of these plants are still active. About thirty years ago in Italy 30 billion cubic meters were extracted a year, then the decline began to the current 3. In part the decrease was due to the exhaustion of resources but in part also to the disfavor with which this activity was seen; and it must be said that it was not only environmental groups that steered political choices in this direction, but also some forces that are in government today and are pushing for the resumption of drilling.
What are the reasons for the opposition? One of the concerns concerns the risk of explosion of the well, as happened in Trecate in 1994. In that case, being a plant on the mainland, it was possible to repair the equipment in a short time, although the extent of damage to the natural environment remains controversial. and human health. Drilling in the sea carries a greater risk, because if the explosion occurs on a platform, the damage is materially more difficult to repair, moreover the methane in the fields is almost always associated with a certain quantity (small or large) of oil than in In the event of an accident, it risks ending up in the water and on the coasts, with colossal damage to the environment and the economy. Beyond the hypothesis of catastrophe, there are those who foresee the damage from subsidence, that is the lowering of the continental shelf or the seabed due to the extraction of the hydrocarbons contained within them; the matter is controversial, which brings us evidence and who believes the concern is unfounded. Another possible damage to the environment linked to drilling concerns the methods of exploration: to probe the subsoil, an ultrasound is made, in order to understand the conformation based on the echo of a sound wave. In the sea once explosions were caused with dynamite, now compressed air is used more often (not always). The noise disturbs the marine animals and could cause the cetaceans to lose their orientation, leading them to run aground on the beaches. However, it is an undisputed fact that in Italy the rules on drilling are the strictest in the world.