• 27 Feb 2017

Italy, G7 leader for 2017, to be held in Taormina next 26 and 27 May, will organize and lead other ministerial meetings: the transportation one will be held in Cagliari next 21 and 22 June. In addition to the Italian Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Graziano Delrio, the European Commissioner Violeta Bulc and Ministers of Transport from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States will attend the meeting.

As anticipated during the G7 transportation summit of Karuizawa in  Japan, in Cagliari will be deepened the following issues: the social value of infrastructures and the advanced technologies for roads and driving. Public investment policies are perceived  as a pillar of sustainable development.

Mobility technologies are an integral part of sustainable development because they play a significant role in innovating and transforming road traffic, industry and society in general. Among the technologies which will be discussed in Cagliari, LNG will be a major one, because of its environmental benefits. Sardinia is an ideal location to host the meeting considered that LNG will be used in the coming years for the methanization of the island.

Following the announcement by Isgas of an LNG coastal depot in the city port of Cagliari, the executive vice president of Saras, Dario Scaffardi, during a recent meeting confirmed that the site of Sarroch is available for companies who want to build LNG facilities.

This is a confirmation of the position taken by Saras in recent years, although experts note that a coastal depot in Sarroch, which is 25 kilometers from Cagliari, is not competitive, mainly because of the deposit target  is to power the Cagliari’s city network and to supply LNG to trucks and ships.

It would be different if it is Saras to purchase a significant part of the natural gas from the LNG storage, but also in this case appears most simple to sullpy the Saras plant with a pipeline from Cagliari.

The City of Santa Giusta, which hosts the seaport of Oristano, together with the Province, the local Industrial Consortium and the Chamber of Commerce, asked the Sardinia Region to review the classification of the port so it can host cruise ships.

The interest of all of these bodies for the development of the cruise business is strong supported by the possibility to supply in the future cruise ships with LNG, thanks to the projects for deposits in the area lead by Higas and Edison.

The new classification of the port of Santa Giusta, should however follow the financing and construction of a dock suitable to host large cruise ships that will use LNG in the Mediterranean sea starting from 2019. Future LNG ships of Costa Cruises, for example, will have a tonnage of 185,000 tons and will require about 3,200 cubic meters of LNG every week.