Fluxys, Snam Assert Control at TAP
Swiss-registered Trans Adriatic Pipeline has appointed Luca Schieppati as its CEO and Walter Peeraer as president, with immediate effect, it said June 27. Schieppati will replace Ian Bradshaw, who has left, with no destination announced.
Schieppati joins TAP from Snam, Europe’s largest natural gas utility, where he has worked since 1991. His most recent position was chief industrial assets officer of Snam as well as managing director at Snam Rete Gas, which manages 32,500 km of gas pipelines in Italy.
Peeraer, an existing board member of TAP, was the former CEO of Fluxys, the Belgian-based European gas transmission assets management company. Snam and Fluxys together account for a 39% shareholding in TAP.
TAP chairman Joe Murphy, thanking Bradshaw for his leadership over the past years, said of the new appointees that he was "confident that their many years of experience and deep expertise will be essential in safely and successfully delivering this project for the European gas customers.”
TAP is the final leg of the much-feted Southern Gas Corridor, running from Greece to southern Italy and with reverse flow built in. Its biggest problem has been in southern Italy where a local mayor has done what he can to mobilise opinion against the project and caused a number of protracted delays. The 878 km pipeline project is still due to start up in 2020.
TAP's shareholders are UK major BP (20%), Azerbaijan's state oil and gas company Socar (20%), Italian Snam (20%), Belgian Fluxys (19%), Spain's Enagas (16%) and Swiss Axpo (5%), the latter being, along with Norwegian Statoil, founders of the pipeline idea.
Axpo (then known as EGL) has gas-fired power plants in southern Italy.
Snam and Fluxys also have a 31.5% joint shareholding in the Interconnector UK pipeline, in addition to which Fluxys directly owns 35%. Snam and Fluxys signed a memo of understanding in 2014 about jointly owning their international assets across Europe at a time when Peeraer headed Fluxys. However the agreement was not fully followed through.
William Powell