AIM-quoted Independent Resources plc (IRG) has been awarded a key contract by one of northern Italy's biggest gas users to store natural gas in its planned Underground Gas Storage facility at Rivara in the Po Valley.

IRG has reached formal agreement with Confindustria Ceramica, to provide them with up to 4% of Rivara's expected nameplate working gas capacity of 3.2 billion cubic metres for gas storage.

Confindustria Ceramica is the trade federation representing and serving the Italian ceramic tile and materials industry. Ceramic materials manufacturers are located in almost all regions of the country but are particularly concentrated in the so-called 'ceramic district' located in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena, which is where Rivara is located. The industry employs approximately 28,000 skilled workers and generates over 5.7 billion euros of annual turnover. In Reggio Emilia and Modena provinces alone, the industry consumes almost 1.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, making it one of the most gas-intensive industries in Italy. The industry's critical importance to Rivara's regional economy and employment, coupled with its crucial need to secure the means to reduce its exposure to volatile energy prices, makes Confindustria Ceramica a keystone customer of strategic importance to the project.

Rivara is a deeply buried fractured limestone structure viewed as ideally suited to efficient gas storage thanks to the presence of an active aquifer that provides constant natural water drive. Last week, IRG confirmed completion of an agreement under which the leading Italian energy group ERG SpA. will invest €9.5 million to become a 15% partner in the project, which is due for completion after 2012.

IRG Executive Chairman Grayson Nash said: 'To have concluded this contract only weeks after agreeing partnership terms with ERG is a major milestone for the company. It reflects how key regional users have a strong interest in the completion of Rivara, and will assist further in our plans to advance the project through all of the necessary planning stages. We remain committed to anchoring the storage project into the local industrial fabric so as to contribute to and re-energise economic growth and prosperity.'

Following the new agreement with Confindustria Ceramica, IRG continues with further discussions to bring a second strategic development partner into the project alongside ERG, at the appropriate time.

IRG is planning the Rivara development against a background of severe mid-winter gas supply disruptions in Italy, and has also appointed the oilfield services group Schlumberger to advise on and manage the subsurface development programme. Rivara is located next to the key convergence point between Italy's gas transmission network and trans-continental pipelines, further enhancing its long-term strategic potential as a physical trading hub.

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