Natural gas storage

Results

Total revenue amounted to €297million, up by €4 million (1.4%) compared with the first half of 2016. Net of components offset in costs¹⁴, total revenue was €254 million, up by €1 million (0.4%) on the corresponding period of the previous year.

Regulated revenue (€295 million) rose by €3 million (1.0%) compared with the first half of 2016 and refer to fees for the natural gas storage service (€257 million) and the fees charged back to users relating to the natural gas transportation service provided by Snam Rete Gas S.p.A. (€38 million)¹⁵. Revenue from regulated activities, net of components that are offset in costs, amounted to €252 million, in line with the first half of 2016.

EBIT totalled €173 million, a reduction of €6 million, equal to 3.4% compared with the first half of 2016. The higher revenues (+€1 million; +0.4%) were more than offset by the higher amortisation, depreciation and write-downs (-€7 million; 16.7%) essentially as a result of the depreciation resulting from the new infrastructures coming into service (-€5 million; 11.9%).

Technical investments in the first half of 2017 totalled €42 million, a reduction of €9 million (-17.6%) compared with the first half of 2016 (€51 million).

The main investments in the development of new fields and upgrading of capacity (€12 million) involve environmental restoration and mitigation activities conducted in the Bordolano fields (€4 million) and construction activities connected with the installation of the new Minerbio TC7 compression units (€5 million).

Maintenance and other investments (€30 million) relate mainly to the acquisition of capital spares for the compression stations (€7 million), the partial overhaul of the Cortemaggiore wells (€9 million), the completion of the Fiume Treste TC3 gas generator repair (€1 million), property projects including the redevelopment of the Crema facility (€1 million) and I.T. projects (€2 million).

Operating review

Gas moved through the storage system

During the first half of 2017, 11.28 billion cubic metres of natural gas was moved through the storage system, a reduction of 0.14 billion cubic metres (1.2%) on the corresponding period of 2016 (11.42 billion cubic metres). The reduction was essentially attributable to lower withdrawals from storage (-0.35 billion cubic metres; -5.4%) due mainly to weather trends and the behaviour of shippers with regard to the changed market conditions, the effects of which were only partly offset by the greater injections (+0.21 billion cubic metres; +4.3%).

The total storage capacity as at 30 June 2017, including strategic storage, was 16.7 billion cubic metres (+0.4 billion cubic metres compared with 30 June 2016), of which 12.2 billion cubic metres related to available storage capacity, which was allocated almost entirely for the 2017-2018 thermal year, and 4.5 billion cubic metres related to strategic storage (unchanged compared with the 2016-2017 thermal year, as established by the Ministry of Economic Development announcement of 25 January 2017).

Regulation

Ministry of Economic Development Ministerial Decree of 14/02/2017 (Official Gazette No 49 of 28 February 2017) – “Determination and allocation of modulation storage capacity for the contractual period -1 April 2017-31 March 2018”

With this decree, the Ministry of Economic Development defined the modulation storage space for thermal year 2017-2018, to be used primarily for entities supplying domestic customers, at 7,625 million cubic metres plus the mining storage share not allocated. The Decree confirmed that this storage space, together with that reserved for uniform storage of annual and multi-year duration, would be allocated by competitive auctions, with the reserve price defined by the Authority on the basis of the criteria set forth in Resolution 76/2017/R/gas “Provisions for storage services for the thermal year 2017-2018”.