This week’s outpouring of congratulations over the government’s accord with Libya for the purchase of fuel, oil and gas at ‘preferential rates’ could, unfortunately, simultaneously be a case of a premature and misplaced celebration.

The celebration may be somewhat premature since in a country as unstable as Libya, which is currently struggling to produce enough oil for even close to its own needs, matters are very much up in the air and the situation as a whole is volatile.

Just yesterday, Libyan officials were reported as saying that the country’s oil exports have plunged to less than 10 per cent of their pre-war levels, falling to just 150,000 barrels per day. Libya was exporting 1.6 million barrels before the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. They blame the drop on protests by oil facility guards who work for the Libyan defence ministry and that losses from recent strikes and protests had reached more than US$5 billion.

Tripoli, the capital, is suffering water and electricity shortages and Prime Minister Ali Zidan is facing calls for him to step down.

While these problems at the moment may be temporary in nature, and it is hoped that they are, they certainly cast a shadow on this week’s agreement, and the outpouring of praise for the government may be more than a little premature.

There are other factors to consider as well. For starters, the public is keen to learn what these preferential rates will be, and when the tangibles of the deal will materialise, neither of which have been revealed so far. As such, these brass tacks of the agreement are still very much unknown quantities.

There are, however, other positives to the agreement such as joint oil exploration in long-disputed areas and the potential of Malta becoming a European hub for Libyan fuel products.

And if these preferential rates are solidified and fuel shipments materialise in the short to mid-term, Malta could have a cushion against the volatility of international oil prices. Should this agreement be brought to actual fruition, which it hopefully will be, it would be a godsend to the ailing Enemalta and consumer electricity prices.

Cancer and asthma factory

After all that has been said and done, it is simply unfathomable how the government could even contemplate continuing to run the Delimara power station on heavy fuel oil, when the Labour Party had opposed its introduction so vehemently when in Opposition.  That includes the Prime Minister and the energy minister, who have described the fuel as the most polluting on earth.

But, over and above that, what is also confounding is how during the election campaign the party had pledged to convert the power station to run on the less polluting diesel if and when elected, a fact which the government is now attempting to negate.

But what, in actual fact, is being negated is the government’s electoral pledge.  The government has clearly gone back on a promise that it is now trying to pretend it had never made. But the fact of the matter was that the party’s energy plan was the cornerstone of its election campaign, and that pledge to change the power station’s fuel source had bought the party many votes in the March general election.

But well over and above all this is the fact that none other than the Prime Minister himself who had blasted HFO-fuelled power station as a “cancer and asthma factory”. It is inexplicable how the government could even consider keeping what it has termed a “cancer and asthma factory” open for one day longer than necessary after all the HFO scaremongering during the election campaign.

Yesterday, the former resources minister went on record saying that the power station’s fuel could easily be swapped for the cleaner diesel fuel.  So what, exactly, is the problem? What are the technical considerations that led the government to request an extended period for the use of HFO at Delimara?  We have asked the government this question and have received no replies.

Is the problem cost constraints? And if so, does this mean that, cancer and asthma factory or not, the government is putting a price tag on citizens’ health and lives?  We have asked this question as well but received no reply.

After the Malta Environment and Planning Authority granted the government’s request to extend the use of HFO in Delimara until March of next year, no doubt another similar request will be made for the use of HFO until the new gas-fired plant is up and running.

Where does this leave the residents of the south of the island who were scared out of their wits last March by the Labour Party’s cancer and asthma hazard claims?

These are some of the fundamental questions that are begging to be answered.