NEW TRANSACTIONS CONTRIBUTING TO SNAM’S INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
In 2015, Snam bought Statoil’s 20% stake in Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP), the company responsible for developing the Southern Gas Corridor as a key channel enabling gas produced in Azerbaijan to be transported to European markets.
This transaction marked another significant step in the international growth strategy begun by Snam in 2012 with the acquisition of 31.5% of Interconnector UK in a joint venture with Fluxys, and continued in 2013 and 2014 with the respective acquisitions of 45% (this stake is now 40.5%) of TIGF in France, with a view to strengthening the Group’s leading position among European infrastructure operators, and 84.47% of Trans Austria Gasleitung GmbH (TAG), the company that owns the Austrian section of the pipeline between Russia and Italy, a key asset in the East-West energy corridor, partly because of a potential reverse flow to Central Europe.
Investments and development of manufactured capital
The main investments in the development of new infrastructure were as follows:
- 211 million in works to enable physical transportation flows to be reversed at the interconnection points with northern Europe;
- 85 million in upgrading the transportation network from the entry points in southern Italy and € 67 million in upgrading the network and connecting new regional and national redelivery points;
- 126 million in developing new storage fields;
- 79 million in increasing storage capacity;
- 180 million in extending the distribution networks.
In light of the completed works and asset disposals, the gas pipeline network in operation has increased by a total of 61 km (+0.2% compared with 2013) while the installed power at compression stations has risen by 2.8 MW (+3.1%). Storage capacity is unchanged at 11.4 billion m3.