Outlook
The main management guidelines provide for organic growth in Italy and the consolidation of the Company’s presence in Europe, with the objective of improving supply security, flexibility and the quality of service of the entire gas system.
GAS DEMAND
According to the most recent estimates, demand for natural gas in Italy in the five-year period 2017 – 2021 will remain more or less unchanged from 2016 levels.
INVESTMENTS
Snam confirms a significant investment plan, equal to approximately €5 billion in the five-year period 2017 – 2021 of which €4.7 billion for projects in Italy. The priorities of the investment plan for the various business segments are as follows:
TRANSPORTATION
The planned investments target:
- Increased flexibility and security of the transportation system in Italy;
- Ongoing improvements to the quality of the transportation service;
- increased interconnection between infrastructures and greater flexibility of gas flows in Europe.
Over the period in question, the planned investments should allow the Company to extend the total length of the transportation network (32,508 km in 2016) by around 1% and to increase the installed power in the compression stations by around 5% (approximately 922.2 Megawatts in 2016).
STORAGE
The projects included in the plan, which are intended to improve the overall flexibility and security of the system, will deliver an increase in available storage capacity (12.0 billion standard cubic metres in 2016) of about 7% over the period in question and an increase of around 8% in delivery point capacity (238 million standard cubic metres per day in 2016).
OPERATING EFFICIENCY
Snam will continue to focus on operating efficiency in 2017, through initiatives that will enable it to keep the level of controllable costs more or less stable in real terms, on a constant-size basis.
NEW BUSINESS
Initiatives aimed at the development of new innovative services in the CNG and “Small Scale LNG” sector are being examined, specifically to support the use of gas in the transport industry.
Snam will also ensure all necessary measures for promoting the use of its know-how in gas infrastructure to serve investees and third parties.