Snam network: 1.8 billion of interventions in 2024 for 102 gas worksites

Sixty-three main sites of the gas network on which Snam is currently working in Italy, including pipelines and power plants, storage sites and regasification plants. And another 39 that will be launched during the course of the year. This is the commitment fielded in 2024 by the group led by Stefano Venier: 102 construction sites overall, including works already started and planned, for an investment of approximately €1.8 billion, which rises to €2.6 billion when considering all the infrastructure projects (approximately 500), including the secondary ones on which Snam is or will be active during the year.

"With more than 100 construction sites open during 2024, we are giving body to our investment plan to develop infrastructures capable of managing in an increasingly flexible way the molecules that serve both the safety and carbon neutrality of the country," Snam's chief operations officer, Massimo Derchi, explains to Il Sole 24 Ore, who then puts the emphasis on the 'sustainable construction site' policy, one of the pillars of the sustainability strategy announced by Snam with the new plan to 2027. "For example, we pay great attention to biodiversity and territorial regeneration,' continues Derchi. 'And on methane emissions, the data are more than positive: from 2015 to 2023 we have reduced them by almost 60% and we intend to continue beyond that, also thanks to other small measures that make our activities even more environmentally friendly. Derchi cites a few examples. "In some construction sites," he explains, "we are experimenting with the use of vehicles powered by green fuels with Hvo (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, a biofuel of renewable origin, ed), which can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to the diesel normally used. And this, too, contributes to achieving the goal we have set for 2027, which is to generate a positive, and no longer just neutral, impact on the territories in which we work".

An impact that can also be measured by looking at the economic fallout on individual territories, since Snam's supply constitutes an important driving force for the activation of the national economy and employment, thanks to the movements of economic flows that transfer wealth from the economic system of the companies in its supply chain to the national economic system. The multiplier effect is specified in the latest annual report, which states that for every million euros of Snam's order, the Italian economic system has seen its gross production increase by 2.62 million euros, generating national added value of 1.01 million euros and about 15.1 annual work units.

Returning to the investments put in place in 2024, the most significant interventions concern the Adriatic Line, the new gas backbone that will increase transport capacity along the south-north axis by 10 billion cubic metres per year, the BW Singapore regasifier in Ravenna, and the Potenziamento Export Phase 1 project aimed at supporting the growing volumes of gas expected to transit from Italy to Europe.

With regard to the Adriatic Line, phase 1 of the project consists of the construction of the Sulmona power plant (33 megawatts) and the Sestino-Minerbio gas pipeline (140 kilometres) and will involve investment of approximately EUR 1 billion (of which EUR 375 million will come from the NRP because phase 1 was included in the revision of the Plan in light of the RepowerEu). Phase 2, on the other hand, consists of the Sulmona-Foligno pipeline (170 km) and the Foligno-Sestino pipeline (114 km), and includes about 1.4 billion euro of work that will support the new backbone, which has also been guaranteed a loan of 300 million from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.