Snam Profits Rise, Spurred by Italian Demand
Italian national gas infrastructure operator Snam reported higher profits March 14 as throughput rose 5.6% year on year. It said 74.6bn m3 were injected into its network in 2017, while 0.2bn m3 was added to its available storage capacity which reached 12.2bn m3 at end-2017.
Italian gas demand increased by 6% last year to 75.1bn m3, marking the twelfth consecutive quarter of growth, it added, also forecasting that Italian demand out to 2021 would remain stable, despite falling European production and increasing reliance on imports.
Snam’s adjusted 2017 net profits were up 11.2% at €940mn ($1.16bn). Reported net profit increased to €897mn, a slight rise from the €861mn it made in 2016. Higher revenues (up €26mn or by 1.1%) were attributable mainly to gas transport and storage, and lower operating costs, it said. Regas earnings went positive but remained meagre at €2mn, as volume regasified at its Panigaglia terminal tripled to 0.63bn m3 (or 15 cargoes).
Snam confirmed a €5.2bn Italian investment plan for 2017-21, up 10% on what was announced a year ago, saying of that €1bn was already spent in 2017. It said future capex is planned on completion of additional reverse flow capacity towards other European countries, and receiving new Caspian gas flows through the TAP pipe.
Sardinia cited in Snam's strategy to 2021
CEO Marco Alvera, presenting its strategy in London, said that of the €5.2bn total, €4.6bn would go on transportation – a small portion of which will go on developing a new high pressure network in Sardinia through a joint project with SGI – plus €0.6bn on storage and regasification. Snam also said that it launched last year Snam4Mobility which has contraced 19 filling stations for natural gas vehicles (NGVs); the first such station provided by Snam is scheduled for launch 2H 2018.
The company completed October 13 2017 its acquisition from Edison of Italy's third largest gas transmission grid, together with a 7.3% stake in the Adriatic LNG import terminal. Since 2017, Snam and Belgian counterpart Fluxys also completed March 12 the purchase of a 33.5% stake held by Quebec pension fund CDPQ in the subsea pipeline Interconnector UK, a transaction that it first announced March 2. Snam's net debt increased to €11.55bn at end-2017, from €11.06bn the year before.
The company also launched a new logo (shown below) “underlining the sustainable and environmental features of natural gas with the colour green” and softer lower-case logo. (The banner image above shows the former logo with its capital letters). It has received about 500 requests for connection to the grid from potential biomethane producers.
Separately it is "also studying opportunities in small scale LNG and in coastal deposits, which could represent interesting investment opportunities to strengthen the company’s role in the energy transition and support development of the use of gas and LNG in private and heavy transport."
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