Enemalta

Political controversy

Questions have been raised regarding a number of agreements and arrangements made by Enemalta.

Možura Wind Farm

Investigations are being undertaken regarding Enemalta and the Možura Wind Farm project in Montenegro with accusations that 17 Black, a company secretly owned by Yorgen Fenech made €4.6 million profit in the acquisition by Enemalta of shares in Možura. The deal was first discussed by Enemalta in late 2014. After a board meeting on Enemalta in January 2015, a Seychelles company Cifidex entered into an agreement with the Spanish consortium licensed to run the 46 MW wind farm to buy the shares for 2.9 million euros.

The shares were acquired by Enemalta with 90% sold to a consortium of Shanghai Electric, Enemalta, Vestigo and Envision Energy for 10.3 million euros from Cifidex, which had completed their own purchase of the shares just two weeks earlier in December 2015 after Cifidex had been funded with 3m euro by 17 Black.

ElectroGas Malta

A December 2014 visit by Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi resulted in the signing of a memorandum to buy liquid natural gas (LNG) for 18 years from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR as fuel for a new power station in Malta.

ElectroGas Malta (EGM) which won the contract to build the €510 million project had Yorgen Fenech as a director and a shareholder, Tumas energy, headed by Yorgen Fenech, was also a shareholder. In 2015 EGM was granted sole rights to sell SOCAR gas to Malta. EGM is contracted to sell electricity and LNG to Enemalta for 18 years. The first batch of LNG was bought by EGM from SOCAR for $113 million and sold by them to Enemalta for $153 million, further deliveries generated similar profits.

EGM took out a €450 million loan to finance the project, only secured following a €360 million state guarantee that was obtained following the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on 16 October 2017. Keith Schembri working with Yorgen Fenech got the government to extend the guarantee.