Important comment
Edward Mallia posted this yesterday beneath my piece titled ‘What does Edward Mallia have to do with it? Are they really that desperate?’.
Since that piece has now been pushed off the front page, I thought I should highlight this comment here.
Edward Mallia:
Two points: Both sides practise the easy art of selecting bits and pieces which suit their case. The clip by Net television is a good example. SOME of the quotes by PL people provide others. But it was only ONE TV that actually doctored a soundbite to make it sound as if the speaker (not I but in my hearing) said the very opposite of what he actually said.
I am not ‘waiting to be appointed to some position when Joseph takes over’, not least because I am not at all sure that Joseph is going to take over. Which is why — if you go by each sides quotes — I seem to be hedging my bets.
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Any comments on The Sunday Times’ headline news item today Daphne?
Can’t wait to hear what you, tonio fenech et al have to say now.
[Daphne – Learn to read past the headline, or can’t you get that far? If you think it’s a story that vindicates Labour’s proposal, then il-vera miskin.]
In today’s volatile energy market, promoting long-term fixed prices is nonsensical. Hedging in this way may be safely classified as SPECULATION. Note that it’s two conditions – fixed price and long-term, something which apparently confuses Joe Muscat & Konrad Mizzi.
To quote a specific example: Jonathan Stern stated that “Gazprom has a major problem of having a fixed view on what the price of gas should be, irrespective of market conditions. If this continues, it will create increasing problems for Russian gas exports.” http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-11-15/news-matters-0
Yep, that’s the same Prof Stern who’s today quoted in the Times. He acknowledges the “possibility of locking prices through hedging” but tellingly does not recommend it unless one can “spot the cycle” (market trends).
Do you sincerely believe that people capable of “spotting market trends” (especially in lucrative fields like the energy market) would be wasting their time as politicians or their lackeys? Not unless they’re trying to make a killing while someone else assumes the risk (Maltese taxpayers, anyone?).
The business acumen of governments (worldwide) is usually lousy. I therefore feel way more comfortable with the less ambitious and solid, if slow, approach proposed by the PN – rather than the expensive, half-baked and wildly speculative MLP propositions.
Was it the story on timesofmalta.com which mandango70 read? I read the whole article on the printed paper.
Gahan’s simplistic reasoning points to one conclusion. A pipeline, EU-subsidised of course!
Which is the cheapest way to carry a fluid, through a pipe or by carrying it in containers?
Just look at the Liquigas plant in Kirkop. It was built there to provide the SAFE and CHEAP transfer of a variety of industrial gases to the ST Microelectronics plant next door through pipes.
A win-win situation – that’s good business. No need of tankers, and no need of extra expenses in installing gas tanks at the manufacturing plant.
Now if LNG’s price goes down isn’t it obviously clear that the price of natural gas supplied through a pipe will go down also? Where does all this leave us?
The PN need to bring the message forward regarding the interconnector: this installation would be a great leap forward for our economy, because EneMalta are planning to purchase off-peak cheaper power produced in Italy to supply the whole of Malta for a good twelve hours from 18.00 to 06.00.
The 25 ENI power stations in Italy will sell their surplus electricity to EneMalta at favorable rates because they run big plants which can’t be stopped.
When all the smart meters are installed we will start benefiting from this off-peak rate. Not thanks to Muscat’s energy mix.
Having the cost of energy as cheap as Muscat is promising, how can it ever be feasible to install Photovoltaic Panels which at present have a payback period of seven years?
Is Muscat going to revise the favourable rates which owners of PV installations are getting at present?
Hear hear.
The interconnector is the PN’s power station which Joseph ignores, even going as far as lowering its potential supply to 4 hours a day. .
They said so themselves. Sheer madness.
Clean, safe, project nearing completion in 2014. Capacity 200MW.
People have been confusing the interconnector with the pipeline. Perhaps a tour of the works, the capital invested so far and how Marsa can be closed down when it’s operational is essential for the campaign.
Objective figures should suffice.
Joseph’s plan requires keeping Marsa operating until his power station is operational, maybe that’s why he deliberately misquoted Calvagna, linking his study to Delimara instead of Marsa.
Did I say I hate it when politicians take over the blunt facts of technology? To date Labour hasn’t provided one project manager outlining how they’ll execute in two years.
Didn’t Joseph also revise his deadline yesterday? It’s 2016 now.
This is what Joseph Muscat says is unprecedented.
They got their learning curve doing this one outside Rovigo.
Lead times greatly reduced.
The one we’re considering with the same stakeholders would be on Hurd Bank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvwDF8H-qlM
Makes us key players.
It’s what Tonio Fenech has been saying all along.
Which ever way you Spin,you can be certain that we are not as stupid as you think.
You’re very ambitious, mandango 70.
Edward Mallia is doing a disservice to his reputation by being equivocal when it comes to the PL proposal.
He should explain to the public, for example, how a regasification plant works. The very cold liquefied methane has to be heated until it becomes a gas and, to do this, large quantities of sea-water are necessary.
In the process of regasifying the liquid methane, the sea-water itself becomes very cold and, when it is dumped back into the sea, will practically destroy most organisms for an area of up-to-now unknown size.
However, from the little I’ve read, it appears that the cold of the liquefied gas can actually be used to desalinate sea-water and make it potable. The PL proposal makes no mention of this so I presume they are not aware of it.
Alternatively, a regasification plant can be designed as a closed circuit system which does not make use of sea-water but gives a fuel which produces a lot of harmful emissions and is usually considered not environmentally desirable.
Edward Mallia is an expert on such matters and has a duty to talk about them and explain them to the public. I cannot understand why he is stubbornly refusing to do so.
Edward Mallia has been used and abused by successive PN administrations. I think we should realise that it is a bit rich to expect him to save their arses now.
Baxxter, I don’t expect Edward Mallia to save anybody but he has no excuse not to speak out on clear-cut environmental issues. Sitting on the fence means supporting Labour.
While on the subject of “experts” who have suddenly become silent or ambiguous in their statements, Marco Cremona is also distinguishing himself in this respect.
I asked him on Facebook why he is not expressing a clear opinion on the PL project and he said that, firstly he is not competent (!) and secondly, if someone wants him to go into it they have to pay him “handsomely”.
This is the exchange (the link in my posts was to protests in Trieste against a gas terminal):
Antoine Vella: Marco you do not seem to have gone into the implications – environmental and economic – of a regasification plant. And then there are various other connected projects and works. I suggest you go into it carefully and in depth.
http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/impresa-e-territori/2013-01-12/porto-trieste-rigassificatore-081558.shtml?uuid=Abp25cJH
Marco Cremona: Antoine, thank you for the link but I do not have the time/energy/competence to go into the PL’s plan in detail….. unless somebody (the PN?) pays me handsomely to let go of all of my other work commitments and make it worth my while – in which case I will still report on my findings as an independent advisor and I will not let anybody will put words into my mouth (unlike MEPA and the other puppet regulators).
Edward Mallia is probably still loyal to his long-time buddy, Alex Sceberras Trigona.
They could even build the two ships required and rent them out in between shipments to Malta.
At the Euro150,000 daily quoted for their rental, a ship would pay for itself within two years if hired for 180 days out of 365.
That is if the figures bandied about by the experts are correct.
Bob-a-job, the point is that to build two ships you need more than a couple of years and Muscat’s cunning plan hinges on having a gas-fired power station by 2015.
No, the point is where you’ll get the gas from. Which we’ve been told will be Algeria.
You are being sarcastic, of course.
These are tankers you’re talking about, not plastic boats in your bath tub.