Gas tanker safety reports to be published 'in coming days', Mizzi pledges • Marsa to be regenerated

All safety reports and risk analyses into the LNG tanker anchored at Marsaxlokk Bay will be published in the coming days, minister Konrad Mizzi pledged on Sunday.

“All the safety reports, risk analyses and impact assessment studies into the LNG tanker will be published in the coming weeks, so the public may scrutinize the documents. The studies showed that it was safer and easier to have storage tankers on the tanker, rather than on land,” Mizzi said.

Mizzi’s announcement comes just days after the Occupational Health and Safety Authoritity announced that it has appointed a foreign expert to evaluate all documentation relating to the tanker which will supply liquefied natural gas to the new power station at Delimara. Once the evaluation process is concluded, all documents will be published, the OHSA said.

The government’s refusal to publish the relevant safety reports has been a sore point for the Opposition, with leader Simon Busuttil insisting that the tanker should not have been moored at Marsaxlokk Bay until the publication of all studies.

The minister, who was given a hero’s welcome by the Labour faithful, said the LNG tanker is currently undergoing its final sea trials, after which it will start operating.

Speaking at Hamrun, Mizzi, the minister without portfolio who was stripped of his energy portfolio following the Panama Papers revelations, also pledged that all remaining major structures at the Marsa power station would be dismantled by 2017.

The minister explained that four boilers and two chimneys have so far been dismantled, and that once the new power station in Marsaxlokk starts operating, the remaining structures will be dismantled.

“Marsa is crying out for regeneration. The former power station has potential and is a prime site in the Grand Harbour. The government will hold talks with the Marsa local council and all other stakeholders to regenerate the area,” Mizzi said.

The minister also announced that works will also next year on the dismantling of the old oil tanks at Birzebbuga, insisting that this was the government’s “gift” to nearby residents.

Mizzi also explained that the government would also apply for the permits for a 155 km pipeline from Gela, Sicily. The minister explained that the project would be partly financed by EU funds, and that the pipeline will be connected to the south of Malta, just three kilometres away from Delimara.

The former energy minister also took a swipe at the Nationalist Party, arguing that previous Nationalist administrations had “run Enemalta dry” and offered no tangible and concrete alternatives to reduce utility tariffs.

“We were told that Enemalta owed €130 million tin excise duty, and if this wasn’t paid, Malta’s deficit would have exploded. We were told that the only way for Enemalta to pay back its debt, was to increase the tariffs by 30%.”

“The government refused and in just three years, the company is back on its feet, and has successfully reduced its €1 billion debt to €300 million,” he said.