An abrogative referendum on oil and natural gas drilling was held in Italy on 17 April 2016.^[1] The referendum was on the proposed repealing of a law that allows gas and oil drilling concessions extracting hydrocarbon within 12 nautical miles of the Italian coast to be prolonged until the exhaustion of the useful life of the fields.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (March 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 3,068 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Referendum abrogativo in Italia del 2016]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|it|Referendum abrogativo in Italia del 2016}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Outcome, Results ...

2016 Italian oil drilling referendum

17 April 2016
Do you want to repeal the Article 6, Paragraph 17, Third Sentence, of the legislative decree 3 April 2006, no. 152, "Environmental regulations", as replaced by paragraph 239 of Article 1 of the law of 28 December 2015, no. 208, "Provisions for the formation of the annual and long-term state budget (stability law 2016)", limited to the following words: "for the useful life of the reservoir, in compliance with safety and environmental protection standards"?
Ballot paper for postal voting by overseas voters.
Outcome	Proposal failed as voter turnout was below 50%
Results
Choice Votes  % Yes 13,334,607 85.85% No 2,198,715 14.15% Valid votes 15,533,322 98.27% Invalid or blank votes 273,166 1.73% Total votes 15,806,488 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 50,681,765 31.19%
Result by region.

Close

Although 86% voted in favour of repealing the law, the turnout of 31% was below the majority threshold required to validate the result.^[2]

It was the first referendum requested by at least five Regional Councils in the history of the Italian Republic: all 66 previous referendum questions since 1974 were called after the collection of signatures.

The search for hydrocarbon liquids and/or gases in the Italian sea is possible - with some restrictions for the coastal and environmental protection - only in certain "marine areas" identified by the Italian Parliament or by the Ministry of Economic Development. From 2013, new drilling is prohibited in the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the marine protected areas and in the waters within 12 nautical miles from the coast; however, the concessions approved before 2013 may continue until all of the resources are extracted.

Italy authorized a total of 79 offshore platforms: 31 are located over 12 miles from and 48 within 12 miles.

Off-shore production of hydrocarbons in Italy

Within 12 miles, 9 concessions are authorized (with 39 platforms) and their permits have expired and they have asked for an extension: if the "yes" vote wins in the referendum, the 9 expired concessions can not be extended. During 2015 those installations extracted about 622 million cubic meters of natural gas (equivalent to 9% of the national production and 1.1% of total consumption in 2014).

Under the 12 mile limit, there are 17 other concessions expiring between 2017 and 2027, which in 2015 extracted 1.21 billion cubic meters of gas (17.6% of national production and 2.1% of national consumption in 2014) and 500,000 tons of oil (about 9.1% of national production and 0.8% of consumption in 2014). These concessions, in the event of a victory for 'yes' in the referendum, will not be extended after 2027.

More information Marine zone (Region), Natural gas (m³) ...

Extraction of hydrocarbons in the offshore platforms located within 12 miles from the coast (2015)^[3]

Marine zone (Region)	Natural gas (m³)	Natural gasoline (kg)	Petroleum (kg)
A – Emilia-Romagna[A 1]	935,758,382	140,487	0
B – Marche and Abruzzo[A 2]	54,004,511	436,237	295,826,731
C – Sicily[A 3]	4,625,021	0	247,054,152
D – Calabria[A 4]	622,667,455	0	0
Total production within 12 nautical miles (2015)[3]	1,518,932,151	576,724	542,880,883
Production percentage of the national consumption	2.27%	0.91%
National consumption (2015)	~66,900,000,000[4]	59,809,999,998[5]

Close

The referendum was proposed by several regional governments after the national government passed a law allowing drilling concessions to last until oilfields or gasfields are empty.^[6] On 19 January 2016 the Constitutional Court approved the referendum.^[6] On 12 February the Five Star Movement asked President Sergio Mattarella to delay the referendum until June to allow it to be held alongside local elections in order to raise turnout and save money.^[7]