Wrong address. Recipient outside the Italian state. For offshore wind farms off the coast of Sardinia, the western front, from Carloforte to Sant'Antioco, along the Sulcis, contact Tower A, Val d'Hydra, in Algiers, seat of the most powerful of the ministries of Algeria, that of “Transition Energétique et des Energies Renouvelables”. The aeolian assault on the cobalt sea in front of the coasts of the Pan di Zucchero, passing through the Tonnare di Portoscuso, up to the bluefin tuna routes of the island of San Pietro, becomes a real international "case". If on the one hand Eni and the State of Rome have let the Algerian occupation of international waters off the coast of Sardinia run, with the establishment of an Exclusive Economic Zone, right on the border of Italian territorial waters, on the other hand the clash it risks triggering unprecedented on the offshore wind front.
Conflicted borders
The subject of the dispute is not gas or oil, estimated in large quantities in the marine subsoil, but the positioning of wind turbines in the open sea. Behind the scenes two lines of thought emerge, one linked to Eni's economic interests which suggests, and in some cases imposes, the passing of business with Algeria and on the other that of the Ministry of Defense which never misses an opportunity, with confidential dispatches and cables, to point out that Algeria, the pro-Russian one, has taken the sea in front of the Bel Paese. What is taking place in absolute silence is a real international intrigue. A scenario that is anything but surreal, precisely because there are already internal papers in the Italian Ministries which suggest that the "Algeria case" could soon turn into a real open-ended clash between the two coastal states. The papers we have come into possession of go far beyond the suggestions of a state, that of Algiers, which with a coup de hand, in March 2018, imposed an Exclusive Economic Zone in the heart of the Mediterranean capable of snatching away Italy a large part of the international waters off the south-western coasts of Sardinia. Draghi, Prime Minister, Di Maio, Foreign Minister and even Cingolani, head of Ecological Transition, thought they could continue to ignore it, so as not to disturb Eni's business with Sonatrach, the Algerian state company. which deals with oil and gas. And, instead, out of the blue, the leaders of the government of Rome find on the table a burning dossier that they wanted to set aside, first of all so as not to "irritate" the Algerians, co-opted by Eni in the cause of Italian gas. At stake, in fact, are the first very serious effects of that Exclusive Economic Zone imposed by Algeria, with a decree of the President of the Republic, and notified, as required by the international law on the sea, directly to the UN. Although the palaces of the capital of Italy have continued to argue that that "occupation" was not valid, the effects, the concrete ones, not only apply but appear in all their evidence in official Italian documents that we publish. It is February 21, 2022, it is 12.38 am when the Captain Mario Valente, Commander of the Port Authority of Cagliari, complete with the stamp of the Ministry of Defense, writes to the Ministry of Infrastructures, Directorate General for Supervision of Authorities system and maritime transport.
Confidential letter
The letter is confidential. It does not appear in the dossier of the offshore projects of the wind companies that have applied to invade, from Porto Flavia to Villasimius, routes of all kinds, from those dedicated to fishing to those of navigation, from oil tankers to commercial traffic. An unprecedented slalom of high seas blades, which is not registered, for invasiveness and grandeur, in any other part of Europe. What leaves Piazza Deffenu, in the military dock of Molo Ichnusa, headquarters of the Cagliari Harbor Master's Command, is a protocol reserved for correspondence exchanges between state offices that discuss what appears, to anyone with a minimum of objectivity, like a real assault on the sea that surrounds Sardinia. The content is armored. In the subject there is the answer to the "dispatch" of the Ministry of Enrico Giovannini, Draghi's man co-opted from statistics to infrastructures, with whom they ask for news of a specific practice, that of Repower Renewable, the company with tax office in the Venice lagoon, a candidate to build a gigantic wind farm right in front of the Teulada "shooting". In practice, wind turbines from almost three hundred meters high planted right in front of the Delta peninsula, the forbidden and radioactive one, where it has always been bombed, with missiles and mortar rounds, from the ground, from the sky and above all from the sea. The heart of the Captain of Vessel's answer is in the final device of the written communication with the tact of the statesman, but with the firmness of one who cannot deny the evidence.
The obligation runs
And, in fact, the formula adopted to answer the superior is deferential but not omissive: "There is an obligation to highlight, however, that, with various dispatches, this Ministry has delegated the undersigned Port Authority to carry out a preliminary examination of further requests of state-owned maritime concession concerning the construction of as many offshore wind farms, of which a graphic representation of the whole is attached ". As if to say, do not ask me to evaluate one plant at a time, but to verify all the concession requests at sea. In short, there is the assault to be examined and not a single project.
Far West risk
And he writes it explicitly, asking the palaces of Rome to look at the map to understand the havoc that is taking place close to the coasts of the island of Sardinia: "For the exclusive aspects of competence, - writes the Commander - from the point of view of safety maritime navigation, safeguarding human life at sea and maritime police, although not directly interfering with each other, the graphic representation of the six projects as a whole highlights, in the writer's opinion, the need for preliminary planning of the areas to be allocated the location of the wind farms, since their coexistence could in the future interfere with traffic and fishing activity ”. In short, says the South Sardinia Sea Command, the Far West of wind farms must be stopped. It is the state, if anything, that must plan the offshore areas to be allocated to offshore wind farms. And based on those areas identified, propose a transparent competition, in terms of royalties and advantages, from respect for the environment to the final cost of that energy. It is the last line of the exclusive document that we publish, however, to officially open the international case on the coasts of Sardinia. The Commander is a man who knows the international law of the sea and knows perfectly well what happened in the glass building of the United Nations. With an explicit formula after having signaled that "the coexistence of those offshore wind farms could in the future interfere with traffic and fishing activity" he adds a statement that sounds like a real international alarm: " as well as having interactions with the maritime space of other States ". What is the captain referring to? With which other states could the wind farms in front of Carloforte have interactions? What do you mean by the maritime space of other states? He knows exactly what he means. He doesn't say this explicitly because he hopes others will understand. In reality it is affirming that under international law, as denounced Italian admirals of great experience, in those waters, in addition to the Italian territorial ones that lap the Sardinian coasts, there is Algerian sovereignty, given that no one has really opposed it and put it in discussion. A paradox, which in reality, however, offers a scenario that the lords of the wind and even less the men of Draghi had not taken into account.
Shovels in Algerian waters
In practice, most of the wind farms located on the southwestern coast, all passed off as outside national waters, ended up directly in the waters of the Exclusive Zone of Algeria. It is the papers that prove it, it is the acts that signal it. And now there is also this "admission" enclosed in an internal communication of the state offices. To end up under the Algerian jurisdiction are the first of nine projects presented, that of Ichnusa Wind Power, 504 megawatts to try to replace the Grazia Deledda power plant in Portovesme, that of Thalassa Wind, wind turbines for another 525 megawatts placed in front of the island of Carloforte and out of 12 miles, that of Sea Wind Toro 2, passed off as the most accredited in the Rome offices, and at risk there is also the second Sea Wind project, Toro 1, nine miles from Isola del Toro, in front to the Island of Sant'Antioco. To place the wind turbines in the Sardinian sea, the wind lords now need a passport, that of Algeria.