(Adds PN's statement)

Works on the Delimara gas power station and LNG terminal have started, according to Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi.

Boreholes were drilled into the ground over the past weeks as part of the works required for the foundations, he told timesofmalta.com.

Dr Mizzi was speaking after a press conference with European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger this morning on the fringes of a two-day energy conference that focussed on gas supplies to Europe.

Dr Mizzi said he was informed that the designs for the plant were ready and work will pick up over the summer. He insisted work was on schedule.

Concerns have been raised over the construction of the plant since no infrastructural works are yet visible at the Delimara site. A private consortium is set to build a gas-fired 200MW power station, a land-based liquefied natural gas terminal and a jetty where an LNG tanker will be permanently moored to act as a floating storage facility.

The Malta project will see the island use natural gas for the first time and comes at a time when the EU is seeking to diversify the provenance of gas to the continent.

Dr Mizzi and Mr Oettinger said conference participants agreed in principle to establish a Euro-Mediterranean platform on gas that would bring together policy makers, industry representatives and regulators.

Ministers from the EU, North Africa and East Mediterranean were in Malta for the two-day conference on energy co-hosted by Malta and Cyprus.

Dr Mizzi said ministers identified ways to create the right environment for gas investments along the Mediterranean basin.

Mr Oettinger said Malta had the perfect geo-strategic location to act as a broker between the Mediterranean’s northern and southern shores.

Europe wanted to diversify its gas sources and suppliers, he added since only a third of gas used in the EU was sourced in member states. Mr Oettinger said this internal supply will be exhausted over the next 20 years.

“It is in our interest to diversify supply, sources, partners and routes and that is why the southern corridor is an important part of our strategy,” Oettinger said.

This diversification will require substantial long-term investments in LNG terminals, pipelines and interconnections.

“If there is no common policy and no common understanding, we will fail,” the Commissioner warned.

PN STATEMENT

In a statement this evening, PN spokesman for Energy George Pullicino said his party welcomed the meeting which reaffirmed Malta's geopolitical importance on such a crucial resource.

It was this which led the previous government to include studies on the viability of a gas interconnector with the European grid with the idea that the country could serve as a hub for the provision of gas to the south of Europe.

It was unfortunate that this viability studies, for which European funds had been obtained, seemed to have been shelved.

Mr Pullicino noted that the minister had not yet published the revised national plan for clean energy, which should have been published in September 2013