The 1,600 Olive Trees Holding Up a $5.2 Billion Pipeline
What was once a lonely fight over local farms has become a populist protest against globalization.
By Chiara Albanese 5 juillet 2018 Bloomberg
On a recent visit to a construction site near an olive grove along the coast of southern Italy, a reporter’s phone buzzed with an ominous text message: “We know you’re there.”
The text came from one of the people fighting to stop the final construction of a 4.5 billion-euro ($5.2 billion) natural gas pipeline that’s designed to run right beneath the olive trees, an area farmed for centuries and now surrounded by barbed-wire fencing. They have been working in shifts, monitoring progress of a project meant to carry gas from the Caspian Sea and provide the cornerstone of a European Union plan to wean itself off Russian gas.
Now their yearslong fight to block the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, known as TAP, has been given a boost. The ministers in Italy’s new government have threatened to put the project under review, aligning more with the protesters than the companies working on the pipeline, including British oil giant BP Plc and Italy’s state-owned gas company, Snam SpA. The threats have thrown into question whether the final stretch will be ready by the planned 2020 deadline—or completed at all.
The companies that invested in TAP and the larger pipeline it connects with could face billions in losses if the project is delayed, said Elchin Mammadov, a utilities analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “There is a 90% probability that it will not be ready,” he said.
On Wednesday, the board of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development gave the project a vote of confidence, approving a loan of up to 500 million euros and saying the initial annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas would be enough for 7 million European households.
What began as a squabble about olive groves has grown into a larger protest against globalization, a theme that courses through populist rhetoric.
“Our fight started to protect our land,” said Gianluca Maggiore, a member of the group that calls itself No TAP. “Now we are fighting against the system, against energy markets distortion, against speculation by multinational companies.”
The populist coalition now in power in Rome is made up of lawmakers from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and from the anti-immigrant League. Since coming to power on June 1, they have roused worries throughout the eurozone, on issues such as the common currency and migrant policy. Yet the new government’s energy policies may turn out to have the greatest impact.
Only the last five miles of the 500-mile-long pipeline—those under the olive trees—are in question.
The project will bring gas from Azerbaijan, winding through Greece and Albania, under the Adriatic Sea and finally up into Italy, which imports more than 90 percent of its oil and gas. Gas is already flowing through some of the early portions, and TAP has been credited with helping the Greek economy last year.
The terminus will be near the seaside tourist town of San Foca, located in the Apulia region known for its crystal blue waters and beautiful olive trees, some of which are as wide as oaks and have been harvested for generations.
Those trees initially proved to be the most difficult obstacle of all.
Local associations and government officials are fighting TAP’s plans to uproot more than 1,600 of them, despite pledges to take painstaking care.
And several cabinet ministers in the new populist government have threatened to put the whole project under review, which environment minister Sergio Costa said will be a priority. Barbara Lezzi, the new minister for the southern regions and an outspoken TAP critic, said she hopes a special committee will review whether it’s possible to halt the project or change its route.
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