Malta would be giving serious consideration to the possibility of installing a natural gas pipeline, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said last night after EU leaders approved a new energy policy.
The 27 heads of state and of government agreed that “the EU’s internal energy market should be completed by 2014 to allow gas and electricity to flow freely”.
Though this does not oblige Malta to have a gas pipeline, Dr Gonzi said the new policy “opens the way for the island to start considering this option more seriously”.
Dr Gonzi said the government would now commission a study to evaluate the possibility of installing the pipeline.
Cautioning the project could not be done overnight, he said “the government will now go into the details of how such a project can be conducted and study whether it is commercially worth it over the long run”.
The installation of a natural gas pipeline with either North Africa or the European system has always been shot down due to the exorbitant costs involved. In the mid-1990s, Malta had considered the possibility of joining a pipeline being installed between Libya and Gela in Sicily. However, the idea was dropped by the Fenech Adami Administration as it was not considered to be commercially feasible.
The recent developments in the energy and gas sectors, with the cost of oil spiralling and natural gas prices going in the opposite direction, the Prime Minister said the time had come to reconsider this option.
“I am not saying we are going to install this pipeline but we should look at it all over again because the situation of 20 years ago was not the same as today’s,” he said. “We will also await more details on the EU’s energy policy as we might be in a position to tap into new EU funds to be made available specifically for these type of developments.”
Dr Gonzi said that it was imperative for the island to diversify its energy supply and not continue to be totally dependent on oil.
Malta and Cyprus are the only two EU members completely isolated from the EU’s energy grid. A 200Mw interconnector to be installed with Sicily by Enemalta in the coming year should make it possible for the island to start importing energy directly from the European grid.
Other projects include the production of energy from renewables including wind, solar and waste sources.
The EU leaders also discussed the turmoil in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt. In a declaration, they called for an orderly transition of power in Egypt and emphasised this should “start now”.
The EU called on the Egyptian authorities to meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people with political reform not repression.