BARI – «I find no reason why the LPG plant should not be built in the Marisabella loop. We are talking about a structure that is already being built in the port of La Spezia. It is interesting to know that the first port in the South to welcome a plant of this kind will be in Puglia.” Thus Ugo Patroni Griffi, president of the Port System Authority, declares his position regarding the green light from the Council of Ministers for the construction of a liquid natural gas distribution plant in the Marisabella port area of Bari. The work was approved by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. «It is especially interesting from the perspective of a green transition – continued Patroni Griffi -, works of this kind offer notable environmental advantages».
The plant has a controversial history behind it, because both the Superintendency for the Metropolitan City and the Municipality of Bari itself had given an unfavorable opinion on its construction. «It was the Landscape Office of the Municipality of Bari – explains the president better – that gave a negative opinion. It was a problem of interpretation of the law on the need, or not, for regional exemption authorization to build this infrastructure in that area. The point was resolved by the Council of Ministers. The conflict was not only with us, but also with the interpretation given by the Region of the PPTR” (Regional Territorial Landscape Plan).
In short, during the meeting of the Council of Ministers, the government decided regardless of the contrary positions of the local administrations and decreed the “overcoming of the dissent” expressed by the Superintendency and the Municipality of Bari. This decision was taken pursuant to article 5- bis of the decree-law of 20 June 2017, n.91, where it is necessary to “balance the public interests consisting of the aims of conservation of the environmental context and the need to carry out the public work”.
The Marisabella bend is currently at the center of works which will lead to the creation of a new infrastructure in the port of Bari, which will allow the docking of larger ships and help the management of maritime traffic. The gas extraction plant will be installed in an already completed area of the bend, for this reason «it is not difficult to imagine that it will be built immediately – declares Ugo Patroni Griffi -. Obviously we are talking about a private investment so I don’t know the precise timing. We are talking about largely prefabricated modules, there should be no long times and difficulties, it being understood that there are safety needs and other bureaucratic procedures”.
Meanwhile, work continues on the Marisabella bend, which according to the timetable should finish in 2025. «We are trying to close a further trilateral agreement with the Superintendency, so that at the end of the works the bend and the filled area can be immediately exploited for activities economic and the uses for which it was designed”, concludes Patroni Griffi. A work costing around 76 million euros which includes the area of the Marisabella bend and the body of water to the west of the Pizzoli pier, for a total extension of 50 hectares (300 thousand square meters), of which 20 are already covered by landfill of concrete. The works, already contracted by the Regional Authority for Public Works in 2012 with a total investment of 42 million euros, last summer required further funds due to the dredging costing more than expected and the increase in the cost of raw materials (16 million (to be precise, covered partly by the Port Authority and partly by the Ministry of Infrastructure).
