Oct 01 - GSD Says It Is Time For Government To Make Clear Its LNG Plans
In response to an opinion piece to the Gibraltar Chronicle dated 30th September where Minister Cortes suggested that the storage facilities that will be provided by Government 'in the plant at Gibraltar are small', the GSD has called on the Government to make clear all its LNG plans for Gibraltar.
The party believes Minister Cortes should first clarify what he means by the 'plant' and whether there will be larger storage facilities outside the 'plant' and says the Government has a track record of giving the public half the picture when it suits them as it has done on the Sunborn, public debt and other issues.
A statement from the GSD said: "In 2014 the Government invited expressions of interest to build an LNG storage facility of at least 12,000M3. These were considered the minimum size requirement for the use of LNG for bunkering purposes and supply to the power station to be economically viable due to the frequency of resupply which would be required for smaller facilities. The Government has also stated that there is an urgent need to involve Gibraltar in the LNG bunkering industry. By allowing commercial entities to build LNG storage facilities for bunkering purposes, the Government hoped to deal with both these issues. Is the Minister now contradicting statements made by the Chief Minister and is he categorically stating that it will not build large enough storage facilities to allow LNG bunkering in Gibraltar?
"Dr Cortes also fails to quantify what he considers a "small" quantity of LNG and suggests it is “not a fuel to be feared”. The EU is rather more helpful by quantifying dangerous levels of a hazardous material and requiring quantities as low as 50 tonnes of LNG storage to be heavily regulated with quantities over 250 tonnes placed under the heaviest regulation in Council Directive 2012/18/EU. To put this in context, a 12,000M3 storage facility could contain 5600 tonnes of LNG. For diesel storage, the equivalent EU Directive is not triggered until quantities of 2500 and 25000 tonnes respectively are reached, implying that LNG by weight is 100 times more dangerous than diesel."
GSD spokesman for the Environment, Trevor Hammond added: "It’s time for the Government to be clear with the electorate on their plans for the power station and associated facilities including LNG storage. Whereas the GSD has stated exactly what it will do in moving the whole project back to Lathbury, Government continue to fail in their obligations concerning public consultation and appear afraid to allow their scheme to be analysed and subjected to a public mandate at the forthcoming election.
"They are deliberately creating uncertainty to avoid proper inquiry, we have seen similar with the stadium plans for Lathbury where the Government has not stated what their alternate position is should that project not pass the necessary planning and environmental requirements. It is all a ruse to avoid proper public scrutiny of their plans ahead of the General Election."
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