There’s a rather interesting interview here with Michael Kunz, Electrogas’s project coordinator
Published:
June 19, 2014 at 12:01pm
Shouldn’t this have been in a Maltese newspaper? And don’t blame the Maltese newspapers. You have no idea how often journalists here are blocked.
I suggest they turn a refusal to be interviewed into a story in and of itself.
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http://www.the-report.net/malta/jun2014/937-interview-michael-kunz-project-coordinator-of-electrogas
The list of bloopers endless.
So this guy thinks LNG gas is cheaper than oil, no it isn’t. Especially when Vladimir Putin messes around with a batch of valves feeding the Ukraine thus Germany.
Then there’s shale gas, same gas but extracted by Americans and causing havoc with orthodox extraction gas prices. Everyone literally on hold to see where to get their gas from.
Interesting how it’s Enemalta which must determine whether the project is indeed viable, both commercially as well as environmentally. Can I join in this bonanza?
LNG’s a very safe gas if handled properly, yes of course, just explain why American and Eureopean safety standards insist on a two mile radius around any plant.
The glycol loop, that’s called an intercooler, wow, how cutting edge and advanced never heard of technology.
And what’s this about fitting the three components together for the next eighteen years if Muscat said it’s a temporary arrangement? Who’s deciding what?
Which leads us to the other statement: How safe is a ship, never intended to lay in port for eighteen years with some thirty years of service behind it, imagine the state of that pipework, valves, monitoring systems, sensors, actuators subjected to thousands of thermal cycles being asked to provide another two decades of continuous service.
Very safe he said.
Nsomma Vote Kunz ghax bravu, mbaccac u wicc bin-nemex.
Could we try the affable Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley instead?
‘The glycol loop, that’s called an intercooler, wow, how cutting edge and advanced never heard of technology.’
That’s exactly what I thought too.
From the very little I’ve read about the process, a glycol loop is a bog standard safety feature therefore I should jolly well expect it to be fitted into the system in Malta.
All LNG tankers have this safety feature. Not having it would be suicidal.
Does Michael Kunz think all Maltese are illiterate?
No, Kunz is incapable of thinking.
It is the PL who fed him the information that all Maltese are illiterate.
Yet people exalt at the reduction in water and electricity bills, and the 2 cents on petrol.
The government gets applauded for these trivialities and all other worrying realities are but fabrications to put the government in a bad light.
Unfortunately, this is the mentality of the majority. Before our country starts any sort of ascent, we still have to be plunged even deeper into more frightful situations.
What happened to Maltese journalists? Have they all become part of the Muscatian Utopia?
They are just biding their time for a TV programme or a PR job with one of numerous state entities.
Maltese journalists are waiting for their turn at the Lou Bondi bonanza: doing f*ck-all for at least double what they are currently earning. Courtesy of Joseph.
Who can blame them?
This seems very contrived, in much the manner of the interview with Sai Mizzi (by the same newspaper).
I suspect it was done some time ago around the time when ElectroGas were awarded the project.
These interviews were carried out before April 2014, because Charles Mangion is still shown as Chairman of Enemalta.
Here is a short liberal, interpretation of the interview, for the benefit of this website’s busy readers.
The Report Company: What is behind this group of companies coming together and what does each member bring to the consortium?
Reply: The relationship between Gasol and GEM had existed for many years, so this does not exclude that the project was planned way before the 9 March 2013 elections, as had been widely discussed on this website.
TRC: Now that the project has been approved, which will be the next steps?
Reply: The consortium is working on the detailed engineering of a complex project for which the consortium currently have no technical solution and about which they have no idea. Malta will be used as an experimental place for a highly dangerous project, especially when one considers that one of the components of the project is a LNG gas tanker containing 140,000 cubic metres of highly dangerous gas moored in the middle of a populated bay, and that there will be a permanent source of ignition nearby in the form of a power station.
TRC: What is the time frame that you are working with?
Reply: Have to avoid that the PM of Malta has committed publicly to resign if the project is not ready on 9 March 2015.
The financing of the project is not ready, so how exactly can the consortium start on the project?
We have no idea when the project will be ready. It hasn’t even started yet.
Yeah, now that would be a good question. Why didn’t you ask me when do we plan to get started instead?
Having said that, since LNG tankers explode once every 10,000 years, we are currently planning to be ready by the 10,001st year, so that we reduce the risk slightly.
TRC: What is the level of investment and what do you foresee in terms of job creation?
Reply: The tender said Eur 370 million, but you had better get ready to the idea that there will be huge cost over-runs because we are fast approaching the delivery deadline and we haven’t even started yet.
The consortium will use some Enemalta employees so that perhaps their costs may be borne by Enemalta.
TRC: What will be the relationship between Enemalta and the consortium and how do you see that relationship evolving in the future?
Reply: Oh, tricky one. For the first 5 years, the price of electricity will be kept low, at about 9c6, but then, from the 6th year onwards, the price can be adjusted to make up for all the losses of the first five years.
That said, the relationship can only be excellent. The last time I checked, the relationship between the corrupt and dictatorial governments of Azerbaijan and China were described as “excellent.”
TRC: What assessments have you carried out as to the impact of the floating storage facility?
Reply: Ok, that’s Enemalta’s problem. The consortium do not come into that sort of thing. On our side, “everything is fine.”
Better avoid mentioning the Maritime Impact Assessment. We did not do that one.
TRC: How would you appraise the government’s effort to facilitate the growth of the energy sector?
Reply: Nothing concrete to say here.
TRC: In terms of the environmental impact, how does ElectroGas balance the development of the project while at the same time preserving the environment?
Reply: Will definitely eliminate the “fabbrika tal-kancer,” which really does not exist, except in the prime minister’s imagination.
Waffle. Waffle. And more waffle.
TRC: What are the expectations of the project in terms of the amount of energy that will be generated, and how competitive will pricing be?
Reply: Amount of energy that will be generated? Do you mean if the LNG tanker explodes?
Have they actually said that “the financing isn’t ready” or has the whole thing been worded so as to divert attention from what is actually going to happen?
What I read is that we were once again given a bolster in the bedding, whilst the intended plot is about to unfold.
If I read correctly there is no obligation this way to keep the same level of communication – such as it was – operational.
I’m not an engineer, but the first question that came to mind when I saw the video about the Ancona LNG storage tank was, why did the movement – this thing was all thought out before the elections so Muscat wasn’t in government when the whole deal was struck- go for such a fossil in gas storage?
The LNG tanker that will soon be berthed in M’Xlokk Bay, is lacking, just to mention one instance, in the latest safety standards that should guarantee, as far as possible in these circumstances- the safety of both workers and the population of the nearby villages.
Then I remembered the tragedy of “Jum il-Faruk”? when several dockyard works lost their lives.
Is this a government that really cares for the people that voted it in?
Can someone produce footage of Muscat saying that he will be resigning by March 2015 should the energy project not be finalised? I do pray the Lord that the PN does have THAT footage. They should start airing it as from today. Daily. Up to the next general election.
It is in here, at 1.18 onwards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq1JLtHflOM
It’s toward the very end of the clip
At 1:17-1:21 Joseph Muscat cleverly says “Nikkonferma dak li qed tgħid int” to Marco Cremona.
The clip where Muscat states that he will resign if the project would not be ready by March 2015 on Xarabank is one of the last cards the PN will play, one hopes.
At this point in time the people have not come to their senses, the electoral victory euphoria has not dwindled enough, and there’s the World Cup fever now, after which the festa season will be in full swing.
When summer comes to an end, and after receiving another two electricity bills which are supposedly 25% cheaper (mine are higher) and after many middle class investors do not receive the tax refund on part of their 35% tax on dividends, and all commercial vehicle owners pay their expensive road licences, then it could be the right time to show the Xarabank video where Joseph Muscat promises to resign if he does not deliver the much awaited LNG gas power station by March 2015.
My question is, if no one took the trouble to record the Xarabank clip, wouldn’t it still be a promise which should be kept?
Joseph Muscat honours his backroom deals, and should keep this public deal he declared on Xarabank.
I suggest someone downloads a copy of this video before it is removed from youtube! Gahan, are you saying that Joseph Muscat said something similar on Xarabank as well?
If I’m not mistaken it was Ing Cremona who said during one of the pre-election Labour meetings that he believed the PM would resign if the project wasn’t running within two years as promised, to which Joseph Muscat nodded in approval. Been some time since that footage was shown, would be good to see it again.
Le..”They should start airing it as from today. Daily” . ….imma sakemm tasal il-ġurnata li suppost dan il-proġett makabru għandu jkun lest ie 11 ta’ Marzu 2015…u jekk ma jkunx , inżommuh fuq kellmtu stess u naraw li dan jirriżenja..mela nistennew sal-elezzjoni li jmiss!
Maybe you are too young to know how the Labour Party works. If the energy project is not finalised in time the PL will issue a statement stating that “by general request from the majority of the Maltese public Joseph Muscat will stay on, him being a providential gift “. We are very much used to such statements.
Great link. Thanks. Check out 1:22:00 “Kampanja ta’ skermongering. Qalulna: X’jigri jekk tfalli l-kumpanija?”
This QA has the exact same structure of the QA of Sai Mizzi. Smells fishy.
I have it from a reliable source (Konrad Mizzi’s relative) that Konrad Mizzi and Laing Sai have divorced.
They may have been divorced in China rather than Malta, and that would account for his frequent visits to that country last year.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck. Laing Sai has literally disappeared. There is no news of her and nobody – not investors, not the press – has any contact details for her.
Meanwhile it’s 264 days to the inauguration of the new power station.
Times of Malta at it again. They pick up a story after reading it here. Kurt Sansone about Gasol in today’s Times of Malta. You should really give him a good dressing down.