Rivara Projext receives formal clearance

RNS Number : 2171U

Independent Resources PLC

19 December 2011

 



19th December 2011

Independent Resources plc

("IRG" or "the Company")

Rivara Project receives formal clearance

Independent Resources plc (IRG:L) is pleased to announce that it has received formal communication from Italy's Ministry of Environment regarding its Rivara gas storage project in Northern Italy, for which it is currently seeking environmental and consequent mineral title approvals ahead of planned development.

The Ministry's Technical Commission for Environmental Impact Verification (or "VIA Commission"), a decision-making body within the Ministry, has voted to allow the project to proceed by explicitly re-confirming the environmental compatibility of the project's so-called appraisal phase, which is designed to definitively confirm the project's technical characteristics and therefore both its safety and feasibility.

The Company welcomes this long-awaited development and will report further on the project's status and outlook following receipt of the Ministerial Decree associated with the VIA Commission's approval. Such a decree formalizes the positive opinions received from both the VIA Commission and Italy's Ministry of Cultural Assets and Activities and the issue of the decree is an automatic consequence of these opinions. The Company expects to receive the signed decree early in 2012 following the upcoming holiday season.

For further information, please visit www.ir-plc.com or contact:
Grayson Nash	Independent Resources plc	[phone]
Allan Piper/Simon Hudson	Tavistock Communications	020 7920 3150
Jonathan Wright/ Stewart Dickson (Corporate Finance)	Seymour Pierce Limited	020 7107 8000
Richard Redmayne/David Banks (Corporate Broking)

Background details follow:

Independent Resources is the planned developer of the Rivara underground storage site located in the Po Valley, Northern Italy, a deeply-buried, highly-fractured limestone structure with inherent geological characteristics that make it ideal for summer gas storage and rapid winter withdrawal, using the benefit of a natural water drive. It is also located right at the hub of Italy's gas transmission system, along the main trunk line corridor from North Africa into Southern Europe.

IRG is aiming to develop the project against a backdrop of Italy's urgent demand for new gas storage facilities, following disruptive winter supply shortages and major supply disruptions. Independent Resources has continued to work carefully within the complex framework laid down by the regulatory and environmental processes in Italy, where Rivara remains a key project. IRG characterises Rivara as a much-needed infrastructural investment in an extremely under-supplied market, and as a project that is relatively insensitive to short-term fluctuations in market conditions.

IRG holds extensive unconventional oil exploration interests in Tunisia, unconventional gas exploration interests covering the entire Ribolla shale gas basin in Italy, and the strategically-positioned Rivara gas storage project in the Po Valley, in addition to other emerging interests in CO₂ sequestration.

 

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