Scornajenchi: 'Snam, Italy at the centre of the plans. We will invest 3 billion in 2025'

How?

We have given a strong acceleration to storage and quickly rose above 91 per cent ahead of the European deadline and expect to grow further in the coming weeks.

Can we be comfortable looking ahead to winter? .

We did everything we had to do, but the winter is long and you have to be very careful. Let me say, though, that filling stockpiles today is a very different job from a few years ago.

In what sense?  

Until a few years ago, Snam operated an onshore infrastructure within a very unbalanced system in one area of the world. Now the flows from Russia are almost zero and gas arrives from different routes. We have accelerated, thanks also to the success of the initiatives carried out by Eni, the flows of gas arriving from North Africa and the share of gas that arrives in Italy by ship and needs regasification terminals has grown.

You have put two on track, Piombino and Ravenna, in addition to the three already in operation.

In this respect, Snam has done an extraordinary job by getting it up and running very quickly, which allows us to balance land flows with ship flows by being able to turn to a wide range of suppliers.

Italy no longer just a port but a 'crossroads' for gas flows?

Once we were mainly a gas destination country, today we are in a different position and can contribute to the rebalancing of European flows. If Europe really wants to move away from Russian gas, it will have to ensure that Eastern European countries can receive flows from opposite directions to the historical ones, and Italy is in a strategic position to accompany this process.

GNL is gaining in importance. Does this also imply a change in the regulatory framework?

It is to be hoped that this will happen. The onshore gas business is regulated, the regasifier business is only partially regulated, but we must work on this so that the regulator understands that the LNG business will have to be integrated into the regulatory framework of the gas business as a whole.

How much weight does the US have in this new geography of gas?

Of the 160 cargoes that arrived in the first nine months of 2025, almost 50 per cent came from the United States - we were just 10 per cent in 2021 - but we expect this percentage to grow further.

There is a heated debate in our country, but not only there, on how to decarbonise while keeping industry competitive. What is your recipe?

On the need to decarbonise, which remains the right objective, the president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, is right. Decarbonising does not mean deindustrialising: the key word is integration and not replacement. And it is clear that for some sectors, I am thinking of the energy-intensive, one cannot only refer to renewables but must also look at other technologies, such as CCS (carbon capture and storage).

You have the Ravenna project in the field with Eni. At what stage is it?

This is a successful experience. From here we are reasoning on how to exploit the technical experience, which is unique in the world, to provide industrial support for what will be the regulatory discussion.

Let's turn to M&A. Are there any difficulties in the acquisition of 24.99% of Open Grid Europe?

The transaction is proceeding smoothly, but we are surprised by the length of the process due to the incredible amount of investigation the German Authority has asked of us. It is an interesting asset, but we will not go ahead in spite of the saints.

Are there other targets in your sights?

We evaluate many options in Italy and Europe especially with reference to neighbouring or instrumental networks and infrastructures that secure Italy's gas flows and allow our country to contribute to the new geography of gas.

Among the games you are involved in is Sardinia..

There we will be called upon to carry out a strategic operation for the energy sustainability of the island, and we are pleased to be one of the main people responsible for its implementation.