Include Manwel too, for drawing them up.

What’s all the secrecy with publishing the contracts?

We have had so many different reasons for the delay on this project that it is very hard not to think that there is an awful lot of back handed deals going on. What does one have to do to get them to make the contracts public.

YES it is in our interest to know what is in them even if the government says it is not.

I am not very sure about this, Antoine. The request for proposals for the Power Purchase and Gas Supply Agreements contract was issued by Enemalta. The contract will be signed by Enemalta as the buyer.

I had questioned here before why the gas purchases are being handled by Enemalta when one considers that now even the BWSC plant has been sold.

But Enemalta can buy the gas, use it in the power generation at BWSC or Electrogas, and then settle with the separate owoners of those plants on a net basis – a settlement in which the gas supply is netted from the value of electricity purchased.

This way, Enemalta will be able to buy all the gas in large quantities and will have control over the price of gas. Besides, the burden of the long term commitment to purchase gas will be kept by Enemalta rather than passed on to the private operators. I think there is nothing wrong in this.

1) Only one company progressed to the final stage of the tender process as others were disqualified. This should never happen where you are left with a single bid, and you are lumped with the price willy nilly.

2) People forget, but this is the same company which was involved in the bus ticketing scandal, which machines never worked.

3) It is well known that the director of the company is of the same ilk as Carol Peralta – and it may very possibly be a reason why the company ended up as the sole bidder.

Ask the competitors of this company. No further comment.

How could Konrad Mizzi again give the assurance that EneMalta will not be obliged to buy the electricity generated by the BWSC plant owned and gas converted by SEP?

So theoretically the Chinese will spend millions and sit idle on the plant while Malta possibly buys its energy from the interconnector?

Why hasn’t the Opposition insisted on seeing both the ElectroGas and SEP contracts, till they are hoarse and on hunger strike – because energy supply is the backbone of the country .

Pullicino and the solar panels tender seems to have got all the publicity instead.

Ciccio, the power stations that will be using gas are the Electrogas one, when it is built, and the BWSC, to be owned by the Chinese. Enemalta will have only a small plant kept on stand-by.

This means that Enemalta doesn’t need gas and will not be buying, except small quantities. All Enemalta is buying is electricity.

Neither the Chinese nor the Electrogas consortium would buy gas from Enemalta when they can buy it directly from producers or extract it themselves.

Referring to my first few questions, this is why tenders normally require the names of bidders to be clearly stated and clear declarations on the involvement of subcontractors and their details.

Did Electrogas state in its bid that it will be acquiring gas from Shell through “trading and hedging” deals carried out by Socar Trading?

The Minister is playing with the words “trading and hedging” because he probably thinks he will mislead the public by confusing Socar Trading’s name with the Maltese obsession with hedging the price of oil and gas.

Trading and hedging mean commissions and charges…

The Opposition should ask the Auditor General to investigate the involvement of Shell in the purchase of gas.

Shell was one of the “Big Names” in the iniital expression of interest.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130511/local/big-names-among-power-station-bidders.469151

But they chose to withdraw their interest by the time of the final bids.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130921/local/Big-names-pull-out-of-gas-plant.487033

Why did Shell withdraw from the bidding? Were they paving the way to others to win the bid?

Why is he finding the feed-in tariff of 22 cents corrupt? Unless I am wrong, isn’t this the rate he is paying to households who have PV panels installed?