PN’s fuel hub plan devised by ‘Malta’s biggest fuel smuggler’, Abela suggests

Updated 6.30pm

The main financial backer of the Nationalist Party’s proposal to create a fixed offshore fuel hub off Hurd’s Bank is “Malta’s biggest fuel smuggler,” Robert Abela has suggested. 

The fuel hub, pitched by PN on Tuesday, would service the thousands of vessels passing through the Mediterranean. 

Opposition leader Alex Borg said the hub would be a new economic niche and also be used to feed LNG to the Delimara power station via a subsea pipeline. 

Fielding questions from journalists at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, the Labour leader called on the press to identify who he called the “hidden investor” behind the project. 

“Ask if it is the biggest oil smuggler the country has ever seen. These are the people creating PN’s electoral manifesto,” Abela said without offering a name. 

The prime minister said the same “wise guy” had approached him with an identical project, and had suggested that after the election, a memorandum of understanding could be signed with the Office of the Prime Minister. 

“Not for nothing did I throw away this idea,” he said. 

Abela said he was in possession of the PN’s presentation on the proposal, which he said the Opposition did not share with the media or the public. 

The presentation, he said, showed that the fuel hub would generate €105 million in revenue in three years, and not €450 million as communicated by the PN. 

Earlier in the morning, a ONE News journalist asked PN candidate Ivan Castillo to name the experts behind the PN’s plan. 

Castillo cited one of them, maritime engineer Oliver Cini, who is running as a PN candidate. He declined to name others when pressed.

In a video published on his Facebook account after Abela made the claims, Castillo said Abela was "trying to ridicule" his party's plan for Herd's Bank. 

He said it had been endorsed by the chairman of the Malta Maritime Forum.

Also on Wednesday, Momentum warned the proposal could compromise Malta's water security.

'When his back is against the wall, Abela resorts to lies'

In a statement on Wednesday evening, the PN categorically denied Abela's allegations.

The party said it was clear Abela was in a state of panic over the PN's proposals.

"The PN categorically denies what Abela said and reiterates that every proposal it is putting forward is being made following consultation with experts who have studied its proposals in detail.

"These proposals are being well received by the public and by key stakeholders in our country, including this proposal, which will lead to the removal of the gas tanker that residents of Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa had been promised by the Labour Government itself would be removed after three years."

The party invited Abela to take any information he has to the police.