Inventories of €235 million (€147 million at 31 December 2010) are analysed in the table below:
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31.12.2010 |
31.12.2011 |
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(€ million) |
Gross amount |
Impairment losses |
Net amount |
Gross amount |
Impairment losses |
Net amount |
Change |
Raw materials, consumables and supplies |
101 |
(6) |
95 |
194 |
(6) |
188 |
93 |
Finished products and goods |
52 |
|
52 |
47 |
|
47 |
(5) |
|
153 |
(6) |
147 |
241 |
(6) |
235 |
88 |
Inventories of raw materials, consumables and supplies (€188 million) primarily include: (i) natural gas used for transportation activities (€121 million); (ii) stock materials relating to the pipeline network (€35 million), the distribution network (€23 million) and storage plants (€6 million).
The inventories of finished products and goods (€47 million) refer to the natural gas present in the storage system (585 million standard cubic metres compared with 642 million cubic metres at 31 December 2010) and do not include compulsory inventories12, recognised under non-current assets on the balance sheet.
The change for the period (€88 million) refers essentially to the transportation segment (€86 million) and is attributable to the natural gas transferred by the users and used to conduct the service pursuant to Resolution ARG/gas 184/0913 of the Electricity and Gas Authority.
Pseudo-working gas14 that could no longer be supplied and reinjected into an annual storage cycle (3,632 million standard cubic metres corresponding to €294 million) was classified under the item “Property, plant and equipment”. This classification is the result of a recent technical analysis carried out with the collaboration of the Polytechnic of Turin and the Ministry for Economic Development, which demonstrated that the above volume of natural gas, while having the necessary and consistent plant modifications, could not be supplied and reinjected into an annual storage cycle without inducing instability risks over time. In line with the provisions of IAS 1, the corresponding value of the pseudo-working gas at 31 December 2010 was reclassified from the item “Inventories” to the item “Property, plant and equipment”.
Inventories are stated net of the provision for impairment losses of €6 million (unchanged from 31 December 2010), set up to account for slow-moving materials.
Inventories are not collateralised. Inventories do not secure liabilities, nor are they recognised at net realisation value.
12 The compulsory inventories are described in Note 12 “Compulsory inventories”.
13 Resolution ARG/gas 184/09 of the Electricity and Gas Authority defined the method of payment in kind, by users of the service to the leading transportation company, of the quantities of gas covering fuel gas, network losses and Unaccounted-For Gas (UFG). Specifically, this resolution provided: (i) for fuel gas, for the introduction of an adjustment mechanism for differences between the quantities allocated and effective consumption; (ii) for network losses, for the introduction of an adjustment mechanism for the difference between the estimated quantities to be allocated according to the Electricity and Gas Authority and the actual quantities allocated; and (iii) for Unaccounted-For Gas (UFG), to allocate the differences between the quantities allocated from users and the consumption to the leading transportation company.
14 Working gas can be categorised into: (i) Working gas that can be supplied, which is the gas that is injected cyclically and supplied from the storage field during the course of the storage cycle, i.e. gas which can be made available and reintegrated to be used for the purposes of storage service provision; and (ii) Pseudo-working gas, which is the gas in storage that can be likened to cushion gas, because it is functional for the use of working gas that can be supplied and is not subject to allocation to users.
