Rivara Project obtains Ministerial Decree (8544X)
22 February 2012 - 6:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMIRG
RNS Number : 8544X
Independent Resources PLC
22 February 2012
22nd February 2012
Independent Resources plc
("IRG" or "the Company")
Rivara Project obtains Ministerial Decree
Independent Resources plc (IRG:L) is pleased to announce that
both the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Cultural Assets
and Activities have executed by decree the environmental
compatibility authorisation for the next phase of the Company's
Rivara underground gas storage project in Northern Italy.
This decree formalizes the recent decision by the Ministry of
Environment's "VIA Commission" to sanction the project's appraisal
phase, which is designed to definitively confirm the project's
technical characteristics and therefore both its safety and
feasibility.
The Company welcomes this long-awaited development particularly
in light of the recent and well-publicised winter gas supply
shortages and gas supply disruptions affecting Italy. The Company
hopes that Italy's Ministry of Economic Development can now work
cooperatively alongside the Region of Emilia-Romagna to reach the
required agreements for a mineral title that would then allow the
Company to drill its planned appraisal wells and ultimately pave
the way towards the security of gas supply and flexibility that
Italian industry has been advocating for years.
The Company is also pleased with the well-publicised statements
of support for Rivara at many levels. There are significant
financial and fiscal benefits, codified by law, available to the
local communities hosting the project. Equally, however, there
remains opposition to the project on grounds that it could be
dangerous or not useful. Over many months, the Company has produced
comprehensive analysis that details every aspect of the
project.
Ultimately the outcome was that the VIA Commission, after an
exhaustive review process, decided there were no good reasons not
to allow the project to proceed.
The Company remains confident that all stakeholders will benefit
from this vital proposed new addition to Italy's natural gas
infrastructure and that the project will fulfil both its local
responsibilities and its strategic potential. The VIA decree is a
fundamental, scientific and apolitical milestone that the Company
is very pleased to have achieved.
The Company now looks forward to updating the status of the
Ministerial-Regional discussions as well as the interest that major
Italian gas distribution companies have expressed in assuring their
security and flexibility of supply from new and reliable gas
storage capacity.
For further information, please visit www.ir-plc.com or
contact:
Independent Resources +39 06 4549
Grayson Nash plc 0720
Allan Piper/Simon Hudson Tavistock Communications 020 7920 3150
Jonathan Wright/ Stewart
Dickson (Corporate Finance) Seymour Pierce Limited 020 7107 8000
Richard Redmayne/David
Banks (Corporate Broking)
Background details follow:
Independent Resources is the planned developer of the Rivara
underground gas storage site located in the Po Valley, Northern
Italy, a deeply-buried, highly-fractured limestone structure with
inherent geological characteristics that make it ideal for summer
storage and rapid winter withdrawal, using the benefit of a natural
water drive. It is also located right at the hub of Italy's gas
transmission system, along the main trunk line corridor from North
Africa into Southern Europe.
IRG is aiming to develop the project against a backdrop of
Italy's urgent demand for new gas storage facilities, following
disruptive winter supply shortages and major supply disruptions.
Independent Resources has continued to work carefully within the
complex framework laid down by the regulatory and environmental
processes in Italy, where Rivara remains a key project. IRG
characterises Rivara as a much-needed infrastructural investment in
an extremely under-supplied market, and as a project that is
relatively insensitive to short-term fluctuations in market
conditions.
IRG holds extensive unconventional oil exploration interests in
Tunisia, unconventional gas exploration interests covering the
entire Ribolla shale gas basin in Italy, and the
strategically-positioned Rivara gas storage project in the Po
Valley, in addition to other emerging interests in CO(2)
sequestration.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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