Description
In recent days, the DPCM for the Gasification of Sardinia, signed on 10 September 2025, was published in the Official Gazette. The decree identifies the Port of Oristano as the site for the installation of the FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Unit) intended for the storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as the starting point of the southern gas pipeline backbone.
With regard to the choices made in the DPCM, the Oristano Provincial Industrial Consortium (CIPOR), while acknowledging the usefulness of the measure—which will align methane gas costs in Sardinia with those in the rest of the country—continues to express strong concern about the elements of the existing project that affect its Industrial Area.
In fact, despite repeated notifications and the submission of detailed technical observations to SNAM and the competent authorities since January 2018, CIPOR has yet to receive any official response and has not been invited to engage in direct discussions with the parties responsible for the current project.
The Consortium recalls that the construction of the gas pipeline backbone, as envisaged by the SNAM–ENURA Project, would result in serious interference with existing and planned infrastructure, severely limiting the expansion potential of the port–industrial system.
These design choices, in addition to failing to comply with the requirements already set by the Sardinia Regional Authority as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment process, would prevent the use of areas designated for new productive settlements.
The continued lack of involvement of CIPOR in addressing the evident project criticalities reported to the proponents for more than seven years is a source of serious concern regarding the consequences that the current decisions may have on the future economic and infrastructural development of the Industrial Area and the Port of Oristano. Moreover, the long pause following the previous DPCM of March 2022 would have fully allowed for the adoption of the alternative project solution proposed by the Consortium from the outset, specifically designed to avoid the reported interferences.
Another critical issue highlighted by the Consortium concerns the placement of the FSRU within the port, for which concerns remain regarding potential impacts on health and the surrounding environment. As demonstrated by experiences in other Italian and European ports, such installations can introduce significant restrictions on navigation and port operations, especially during the loading and refuelling phases of the regasification vessel, resulting in economic losses for operators and risks to the safety and continuity of maritime traffic.
In order to avoid any improper overlap of responsibilities, it must be noted that direct competence on these matters lies with the Port System Authority and the Harbour Master’s Office; however, the issues highlighted also have immediate repercussions for the Consortium, as the managing body of the Industrial Area within which the Port is located. On these matters, the Consortium has received no assurances or information whatsoever.
“We cannot accept that decisions with such a significant impact on the future of the territory are taken without real consultation with those who know and manage the industrial area,” stated the President of CIPOR, Gianluigi Carta. “The gasification project must represent an opportunity for Sardinia and not turn into a further constraint for the Oristano area. Instead, today we are witnessing a centralized decision-making process controlled by the project implementers that ignores the Consortium’s technical and institutional observations, outlining an intervention that risks undermining years of planning and commitment to the development of the Oristano energy and industrial hub.”
The Oristano Provincial Industrial Consortium calls upon the Regional Government to urgently establish a technical working group involving the relevant Ministries, the Regional Authority, and the project proponents, in order to correct the evident design flaws and to identify shared solutions that ensure safety, sustainability, and coherence between the development of the industrial area and its internal infrastructures and regional and national energy policies.