Valeria Mangiarotti, MedCruise director, sustainability and environmental issues. Credit: Port of Cagliari
Plans for LNG infrastructure at Cagliari are part of a much larger programme underway in the Mediterranean, as Valeria Mangarotti explains.
As director, sustainability and environmental issues on the board of MedCruise and marketing manager of the port network of the Sardinian sea, Ms Mangiarotti is no stranger
to the political cut-and-thrust that accompanies port development in southern Europe. Port aspects of countries’ commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change
play out against a backdrop of existing national, regional and provincial regulations and practices, many of which can make positive change difficult to accomplish.
Ms Mangiarotti, who represents Sardinian ports in the Association of MedCruise, says that Cagliari is one of 43 MedCruise member ports that are planning to provide LNG bunkering facilities to cruise and commercial ships.
Bold move
This development is a bold move at a time when many port authorities in the Mediterranean are caught in a chicken-and-egg situation, waiting for proof of the level of demand
before investing in the appropriate infrastructure to bunker ships with LNG. “The cruise ports in Italy are working on making progress for LNG supply,” says Ms Mangiarotti. She
adds that some Mediterranean cruise ports are ready for LNG, “for example, Barcelona in Spain, Marseille in France, and Alexandria In Egypt.”
She adds that MedCruise is working on ensuring its members achieve more sustainable outcomes of major projects such as this one – not an easy task because of the degree of bureaucracy that these projects involve, she says. “When you decide to build LNG infrastructure in a port, it is necessary to have a lot of actors. MedCruise is writing stepby-
step guidelines for all European ports to arrive at LNG supply.” She says that these guidelines build on more general advice issued previously by EMSA with a view to enabling
more ports to take action towards LNG provision.
GreenPort also spoke to Massimo Deiana, chairman of the Sardinian Port Authority, about how Sardinia is set to become an LNG hub.
Source: Greenport