A history of Snam

Italy turns to natural gas and builds import pipeline

Snam (Società Nazionale Metanodotti) has provided integrated natural gas procurement, transportation and sale services in Italy since 1941. It gradually put together an intricate system of natural gas pipelines, covering the whole of Italy, and built important pipelines that today allow the country to import from different areas: Russia, the Netherlands, Algeria, the North Sea and Libya. In 1971, Snam designed and built Italy’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification plant at Panigaglia, in the Gulf of La Spezia.

Snam Rete Gas is born from the unbundling of the transportation business

Snam Rete Gas was incorporated on 15 November 2000 to house all Snam’s Italian transportation, dispatching and LNG regasification activities. The corporate unbundling of these activities was decided pursuant to the Letta Decree (164/100) which transposed the European Directive on the liberalisation of the gas market. On 6 December 2001, after the Electricity and Gas Authority issued a resolution establishing the criteria for defining transportation tariffs, Snam Rete Gas was floated on the stock exchange.

Snam enters the storage and distribution business

In 2009, the Company acquired 100% of Stogit, Italy’s largest natural gas storage field operator, and 100% of Italgas, the country’s biggest gas distributor.

This added the other two regulated gas activities in Italy to Snam’s offering: storage and distribution.

The June 2009 transaction turned Snam into a key integrated regulated gas activities operator, and the largest by regulatory asset base (RAB) in mainland Europe.

Snam operates with new ownership structure

On 1 January 2012, the Company changed its name from Snam Rete Gas to Snam and transferred the gas transportation business to a new company, which inherited the respected Snam Rete Gas name. Snam now wholly owns the four operating companies (Snam Rete Gas, GNL Italia, Stogit and Italgas). The ownership unbundling from Eni was completed on 15 October 2012 through the sale of approximately 30% of Snam’s capital to CDP Reti S.r.l.

Snam expands its scope of activity to cover Europe

Having acquired 31.5% of Interconnector UK in 2012 as part of a joint venture with Fluxys, Snam (45%; 40.5% at 31 December 2015), alongside Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC (35%) and EDF (20%), successfully completed the acquisition of TIFG from Total in July 2013. TIGF is active in the gas transportation and storage segment in south-west France, with a 5,000-km gas transportation network and two storage fields.

On 19 December 2014, the Company acquired from CDP Gas S.r.l. 84.47% (equivalent to 89.22% of the economic rights) of Trans Austria Gasleitung GmbH (TAG), the company that owns the Austrian section of the gas pipeline linking Russia and Italy.

These transactions, in line with the international development strategy launched by Snam in 2012, represent another step on Snam’s pathway of international growth as it aims to maximise its industrial capabilities with regard to the integrated management of natural gas transportation and storage infrastructure.

Snam’s international development continues

Snam’s international development continued with the acquisition of a 20% stake in Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP), the company responsible for developing the pipeline that will run from the Turkey-Greece border to Italy along the Southern Corridor, enabling gas produced in Azerbaijan to reach European markets. Our investment in the project will consolidate the primary position of Snam and Italian infrastructure in improving competition between energy sources and securing gas supplies for Europe.