Snam Firms Up Italy CNG Plans (Update)
Update with final para about a road tanker carrying an unidentified flammable liquid which exploded on an Italian motorway on August 6; police are investigating.
Italian gas transmission system operator Snam has signed a contract to set up 20 new gas filling stations within Eni’s Italian national motor fuel retail network, and also firmed up a partnership with the latter's rival, Api group.
Under the new contract with Eni, announced August 6, Snam will design, create and maintain 20 new CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations within Eni’s network of road outlets; the investment required is expected to be about €10mn ($11.6mn). Snam is vague on the details of how it will be remunerated, but clearly will benefit from increased gas throughput nationwide.
Eight months ago Snam committed to build 14 CNG stations for Eni – the first of which are to open 1Q2019. The contracts stem from a ‘Snam4Mobility’ framework agreement signed in May 2017 by both firms. Eni already has 180 filling stations that serve CNG, and two supplying LNG (liquefied natural gas) to trucks too, out of its total motor fuel retailing network today of 4,400 stations on Italy's roads.
Api Group – which sells under its ‘IP’ brand – meanwhile signed a framework agreement August 6 with Snam whereby the latter will develop some 200 new CNG filling stations in Italy. Snam said the first 30 of these will “be contractualised within the first few months of 2019” – adding that some LNG outlets (for trucks) may be considered. The target of an eventual 200 CNG outlets is higher than when API signed a letter of intent with Snam, for 150 such outlets, back in December 2016.
Api group now has over 5000 service stations in Italy, making it the leading Italian operator in the fuel retailing by number of sales points, thanks to Jan.2018 completion of its takeover of 'TotalErg' filling stations; that deal effectively doubled the number of Api's service stations.
Italy is the main European market for natural gas vehicles, with over 1mn on the roads. But Snam has recently been investing in the capacity to equip such CNG filling stations ‘in house’, and to widen its LNG distribution network to the transport sector. Germany saw a setback to plans for more NGVs on its roads when Volkswagen announced at the weekend it would be suspending such sales for several months.
Possibly unrelated 5pm GMT August 6 2018:
A road tanker carrying a "flammable" liquid crashed on a motorway in Bologna into a tailback of traffic. Press reports say that at least two have died and more than 80 were injured in the resulting explosion, which caused a fireball. One report by Italian broadcaster Rai (in Italian) said the road tanker was carrying "probably LPG" (liquid petroleum gas), citing a senior official from the region's fire brigade. However the contents of the road tanker have not been officially disclosed. A video of the crash and subsequent explosion has been released by Bologna's police department which warned that the images can be distressing; it can be viewed here. The police said its investigation is ongoing.
7.45am GMT August 7: Latest reports from broadcaster Rai explicitly refer to the road tanker having contained LPG.