What must the government do to save the Isab Lukoil factory in Priolo
The Isab Lukoil case of Priolo. The intervention of Daniela Piras, general secretary of the national Uiltec, and Giuseppe Di Natale, general secretary of Uiltec Sicily
There is no more time to save the Isab Lukoil factory in Priolo. The government must act now.
Given that the embargo by ship on Russian oil remains, the last shipment directed to the Sicilian site can arrive by 5 December. Therefore, November 7 was the last day to place the order for crude oil from Russia as it takes 28 days to receive the order.
3 thousand workers are at risk, including direct employees and related suppliers. The entire industrial area of Syracuse, interconnected with the productions of the largest Italian refinery in question, is at risk. This district employs more than 10 thousand workers and represents more than 50% of the GDP of the aforementioned territory.
It is good to know that the Isab Lukoil site satisfies more than 25% of the national needs of the specific territory, covering almost the entire area of the South. Unfortunately, even the “comfort letter” issued by the Financial Security Committee of the Mise is no longer sufficient for the refining site to take advantage of the disbursement of credit lines after 5 December.
The banks, in fact, despite the presence of the legal guarantee from the government, have not yet authorized the issue of any credit.
As UILTEC, we believe that the emergency must be resolved by addressing the issue in a unified manner from the trade union point of view and by proposing effective solutions from a structural point of view. Right from the start, for example, the executive should intervene through Sace, the company controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, specialized in the insurance and financial sector, thus guaranteeing the purchase of non-Russian crude oil on the international market.
We believe that the same government could evaluate how and when to enter the capital of the company, which controls the refinery, to safeguard an energy asset present within the perimeter of the country and at the same time to protect a reality that is a matter of national security.
The emergency that stands out from the Lukoil affair is only the tip of the iceberg of the difficulties that the energy sector suffers due to the lack of an overall strategic vision in the delicate phase of ecological transition, made even more difficult in this specific case by the exclusion of the energy sector. refining from funds available in the NRP.
It is necessary to act now, without further wasting time, so that from the contingent crisis we move to a context of perspective, where the whole of Sicily, thanks to the industrial potential of the Syracusan district, can become a real energy hub of the Mediterranean.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/governo-salvataggio-isab-uiltec/ on Tue, 08 Nov 2022 11:21:42 +0000.