Italy condemned for the no to drilling and the lack of authorizations to a platform in the Adriatic. The British company Rockhopper Exploration has won the international arbitration against Italy regarding the “Ombrina Mare” oil platform, which was supposed to have risen off the Costa dei Trabocchi, in the province of Chieti, near San Vito. This was made known by the same multinational, based in the United Kingdom, which should have exploited the field and which, due to the lack of revenues, given that the project was blocked following the opposition of the citizens, turned to the International Center for dispute settlement (Icsid). The oil and gas company, with key assets in the Northern Falklands basin, has released a document, dated 24 August, in which it says that “it is pleased to provide the following update on arbitration with the Republic of Italy: arbitration award successful, compensation of 190 million euros plus 4% interest, capitalize annually from 29 January 2016 until the moment of payment ».
Rockhopper argued in arbitration that the failure to issue the Ombrina mare oil concession violated the Energy Charter Treaty. It was the Ministry of Development in 2016 that stopped the authorizations for offshore hydrocarbon exploration, at sea, within 12 miles from the coast, that is just over 22 km. The Ombrina arbitration began in 2017, and the ruling was ordered by the ‘International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, based on the Energy Charter Treaty, is the body appointed to manage international disputes of this type.
“There are no concrete possibilities of appeal and the payment must be made within 120 days from today. It was a unanimous decision of the triumvirate consisting of Klaus Reichert, Charles Poncet and Pierre-Marie Dupuy, which ruled that Italy violated the Energy Charter Treaty. Rockhopper estimates that 20% of the funds will be used to cover expenses of various kinds, and that the net for their company will be 80% of the amount paid “, said Maria Rita D’Orsogna, physicist and university professor in the USA and historian environmentalist linked to Abruzzo, at the forefront of the battles over hydrocarbons and the Adriatic coast. “The Rockhopper CEO. Sam Moody says he is happy with this result because there has been a lot of work on their part since they bought Medoilgas in 2014 to bring Ombrina to light, and since they started the arbitration proceedings in 2017 ”.