ROMA – After Piombino, and waiting for Ravenna, Snam closes the circle with Rovigo. The company he manages the gas pipeline network across Italy – in connection with the European infrastructure – yesterday added a new chapter in the dossier entrusted to him by the government, in agreement with Bruxellesin the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine: remove Russia from the list of gas suppliers natural. No mean feat, given that until two years ago, Italy depended on Gazprom – the giant in the sector controlled by the Kremlin – for 40% of its overall needs.
The goal is one step away from being achieved. Snam has just announced that it has increased its stake in Adriatic LNG, the company it manages, to 30%. the regasification terminal off the coast in the province of Rovigo. In fact, it became the industrial partner/operator, while the remaining 70% went to Dutch company Vtti.
The latter was established by Vitol (one of the global leaders in the marketing of raw materials), Adnoc (the company of Abu Dhabi which manages its gas and oil fields) and an Australian investment fund. The ones selling, however, were the American ones ExxonMobil e QatarEnergy, the two operators who, together with Edison, had designed and built it in the early 2000s. Coincidentally, to give Italy, but also Europe, an alternative “door” to Russia for the import of natural gas.
Qatar, on the other hand, will continue to be the main “customer” of Rovigo regasification terminal. Thus contributing to the success of LNG imports in Italy: in the first months of the year, the methane traveling by sea exceededAlgeria as the first supplier to meet the needs of our country.
At this point, to achieve the set objective (eliminating imports from Moscow), only the last chapter of the dossier is missing: the entry into service of the gasifier ship which will be anchored in front of Ravenna. Which will happen in the first months of 2025. A task also in this case entrusted to Snam, which in this way is responsible for all the liquefied gas processing plants, being the industrial operator also in the other processing plants Piombino e Spice.
It is no coincidence that the agreements with Vtti provide that Snam can indicate the chief operating managerdemonstrating the industrial role of the Italian company (controlled by the Treasury through Cdp). «We seized the opportunity as we announced with the industrial plan. comments the ad Stefano Venier – and we will work to develop the potential of the plant, immediately going from 9 to 9.5 billion cubic meters of gas processed per year up to 11. Which, together with the next Ravenna plant, will allow Italy to no longer depend on Russia. Already today we import no more than 3-4% of our needs, when the European average is still 14%”.