Key figures

To improve the economic and financial review, in addition to conventional IAS/IFRS indicators and financial statements, the interim directors’ report also contains reclassified financial statements and several alternative performance indicators such as EBITDA, EBIT and net financial debt. The tables below, their explanatory notes and the reclassified financial statements describe how these amounts were determined. Unless otherwise specified, definitions of the terms used can be found in the glossary.

Natural gas transportation

In the first half of 2016, 34.07 billion cubic metres of natural gas were injected into the national transportation network, an increase of 1.30 billion cubic metres, or 4.0%, compared with the first half of 2015 (32.77 billion cubic metres). The increase is essentially due to the lower withdrawals from storage, which recorded lower net withdrawals of 0.73 billion cubic metres, against demand for gas in Italy which, in the first half of 2016, stood at 35.96 billion cubic metres, a slight increase (+0.42 billion cubic metres; +1.2%) compared with the same period in 2015. Higher consumption in the thermoelectric sector (+0.92 billion cubic metres; +10.1%), thanks to the fall in production of hydroelectric energy and lower consumption of other fuel sources, and the industrial sector (+0.25 billion cubic metres; +3.0%) was offset by lower consumption in the residential and tertiary sectors (-0.74 billion cubic metres; -4.3%) due to weather conditions.

Seasonally adjusted demand for gas was estimated at 37.14 billion cubic metres, an increase of 0.85 billion cubic metres (2.3%), compared with the corresponding figure for the first half of 2015 (36.29 billion cubic metres).

Natural gas storage

During the first half of 2016, 11.42 billion cubic metres of natural gas was moved through the storage system, a reduction of 0.54 billion cubic metres (4.5%) on the corresponding period of 2015 (11.96 billion cubic metres). The reduction was mainly attributable to lower withdrawals from storage (-0.66 billion cubic metres; -9.2%) due to the weather.

The total storage capacity at 30 June 2016, including strategic storage, was 16.3 billion cubic metres (+0.4 billion cubic metres compared with 30 June 2015), of which 11.8 billion cubic metres related to available storage capacity for the entire thermal year 2016-2017, and 4.5 billion cubic metres related to strategic storage (unchanged compared with thermal year 2015-2016, as established by the Ministry of Economic Development in a notice dated 21 January 2016).

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification

In the first half of 2016 0.092 billion cubic metres of LNG were regasified (0.020 billion cubic metres in the first half of 2015; +0.072 billion cubic metres), of which 0.049 billion cubic metres was under the scope of the natural gas integrated regasification and storage service⁷.

Natural gas distribution

At 30 June 2016, Snam, through Italgas, managed the gas distribution service in 1,472 municipalities (the same as at 31 December 2015 and at 30 June 2015), of which 1,401 were operational. At 30 June 2016, the number of active meters located at end-user gas redelivery points (households, businesses etc.) stood at 6.525 million (6.518 million at 30 June 2015).

At 30 June 2016, the gas distribution network covered 56,759 km, an increase of 42 km compared with 31 December 2015 (56,717 km).