2007: When Malta almost ran out of gas

A three-day cold spell in December 2007 and a delayed shipment of gas because of bad weather left Enemalta with "only 90 minutes" of gas supplies, a dossier published by the government has revealed.

The internal Enemalta dossier, drawn up in March 2008, just two days before the general election, said the corporation had a low capacity of storage and this meant it was "not in a position to secure continuity of gas during peak periods arising from abnormal cold spells".

It also acknowledged that the privatisation of the gas division, which at the time was still ongoing, and the decision to relocate the facility away from Qajjenza made it difficult to "substantiate massive investment in building new storage tanks".

Along with other sections of the dossier, the revelation on Enemalta's precarious gas storage facilities was intentionally blacked out by the Investments Ministry before it published the report on its website on Wednesday.

In a statement accompanying the dossier on Wednesday, the ministry said that a number of sections were blacked out for reasons ranging from commercial to legal sensitivity.

However, it turned out that all the blacked out sections were still accessible by a simple cut and paste procedure.

The dossier was prepared by Enemalta's management to provide a new government with a comprehensive overview of the corporation outlining the state of play, the issues at stake and recommendations.

Full story in The Times.