No twenty-year renewal, but a concession limited to 4 years, with the release of a submissive deed. This is the outcome of the meeting of the Management Committee of the Port System Authority, held yesterday morning in Gioia Tauro, regarding the request for renewal of the state concession for a further 20 years produced in recent months by the oil company Meridionale Petroli, which has located its plant in the port of Vibo Marina since 1956.
The announcement was made known yesterday by the mayor, Enzo Romeo, in a special press conference, during which he did not hide his satisfaction. «This is a historic date – stated the mayor – in the clear sign of a turning point for Vibo Marina and for the whole city». A successful shot, in the mayor’s opinion, which seems to lay the foundations for his future re-nomination at the helm of the city (but he did not intend to go too far on this point). Romeo did not fail to highlight the joint work carried out between the majority and the opposition in the council: in particular, he recalled the crucial role played by the unanimous resolution of the city council, which expressed itself last year with the intention of relocating the coastal fuel depots, giving a mandate to the mayor to take all the steps in this direction.
But the road is not at all clear. Also during the press conference it emerged that there is no formal commitment on the part of Meridionale Petroli to transfer its plant (neither to the place indicated by the municipal administration, i.e. in the industrial area of Portosalvo, nor to another location). The commitment is only “in words”. Meridionale Petroli has not yet prepared any feasibility study for the relocation; furthermore, neither the costs of the transfer (we are talking approximately about the creation of a pipeline to relocate, costing around 1 million euros, but nothing more) nor those of the clean-up have yet been defined. Nor is there any timetable for moving the plant.