Abela’s off script fuel smuggler claims shocked Labour insiders

Prime Minister Robert Abela made the fuel smuggler claim shortly after attending the ceremony where a €150 million investment by a medical technology firm was unveiled, effectively torpedoing the good news (Photo: DOI)

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Robert Abela left his own party’s strategists in a bind when he decided to cast unsubstantiated claims a fuel smuggler gave the Nationalist Party its fuel hub proposal.

The prime minister acted unilaterally, according to sources close to the Labour Party, leaving even his own deputy prime minister in a quandary when faced with journalists’ questions.

Abela had just presided over a ceremony in which a €150 million investment by a medical technology company was announced at Ħal Far when he dropped the fuel smuggler bombshell. It caught party insiders by surprise.

The timing was strategically wrong since the news of the investment, dubbed as the largest foreign investment, was immediately buried by the controversy Abela created.

“It was the wrong moment to drop something like that but worse of all, the prime minister shot himself in the foot when admitting that he met the fuel smuggler,” a source told MaltaToday. “Nobody was aware that the prime minister was going to make such a serious claim.”

The announcement left many party insiders wondering why Abela even felt the need to go down that road given that the only election survey published until then—Vincent Marmara’s first survey released on Saturday 2 May—gave the party a comfortable lead.

Abela alleged that “Malta’s biggest fuel contrabandist” had given the PN its offshore fuel hub proposal and he knew this because the same person had met him to propose the same idea. The prime minister said he discarded the proposal but stopped short of mentioning the smuggler by name. When pressed over the matter, Abela refused to say when and where he met the smuggler and whether he reported the matter to the police.

PN leader Alex Borg made a sworn declaration denying ever meeting with a fuel smuggler or criminal over the fuel hub proposal and insisted the allegations were intended to harm his reputation. Borg has repeatedly challenged the prime minister to go to the police with the information.

‘I am the smuggler’

On Friday, the prime minister tried to kill the story by saying that he will only name the smuggler if the PN reveals who its experts on the fuel hub are. Borg’s immediate reply was that he will not reveal who is experts are because he did not want the government to carry out a witch hunt. But at least one expert has fronted the proposal—maritime engineer Oliver Cini, who is also a new PN candidate.

On Friday, Cini hit back at Abela’s allegations with a twist of sarcasm. “I am the smuggler,” he told Nationalist supporters in Luqa, urging them not to be afraid of standing up to those in power. “It is them who should be afraid of us,” he said.

Meanwhile, the prime minister’s bombshell even caught Deputy Prime Minister Ian Borg off-guard. When asked on Thursday by MaltaToday whether his boss should have reported the fuel smuggler to the police, Borg waffled and at one point even called it “a non-story”.

It looked like an attempt to put distance between himself and the prime minister’s allegations. But Borg’s statement exposed the lack of strategy behind the prime minister’s decision to bring into the picture “Malta’s biggest fuel contrabandist”.

The sources told MaltaToday Borg was being cautious not to wade into a controversy he had no prior knowledge of.

The prime minister does appear to have met the smuggler since he produced what was allegedly the presentation given to him by this person. So far, no proof exists that the same criminal met Borg or anyone in the PN.

An idea floated in the past

But the idea of shifting industrial activity offshore, particularly to Hurd’s Bank, is not something new. Only last year, former Transport Malta CEO Jonathan Borg rekindled an idea he first floated in 2013 for an artificial island at Hurd’s Bank that would serve as a centre for industrial and maritime uses.

In 2014, Enemalta had acknowledged that it considered locating the liquefied natural gas floating storage vessel outside Marsaxlokk Bay when drawing up plans for the new gas-fired power station. However, it had discarded the option because of higher costs, lengthier implementation periods and increased security of supply risks.

At the time there were only two LNG floating storage vessels with regassificators on board in the Mediterranean Sea, making the offshore option somewhat of a novelty. Since then, there are more than 15 regasification plants operating in the Mediterranean. Spain leads the way with seven terminals, followed by Italy, France, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

The PN’s proposal is to have a bunkering hub at Hurd’s Bank for alternative fuels, including LNG, which would also supply the Delimara power station complex with gas. This would enable the gas tanker moored permanently in Marsaxlokk Bay to sail away.

But relocating the power station’s LNG supply offshore carries with it additional security risks, which the PN has so far failed to address. Suffice to say that only last year an activist ship was hit by Israeli drones while anchored at Hurd’s Bank just outside Maltese territorial waters.

The party’s maritime spokesperson Ivan Castillo has costed the project at around €500 million, claiming it would generate some €450 million by its third year of operation. The PN is projecting the bunkering hub would generate some 150 jobs.

Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday. He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...

Abela’s off-script fuel smuggler claims shocked Labour insiders

Abela had just presided over a ceremony in which a €150 million investment by a medical technology company was announced at Ħal Far when he dropped the fuel smuggler bombshell. It caught party insiders by surprise