Italian energy firm Snam said its adjusted net profit dropped in 2022, while LNG regasification volumes at its Panigaglia terminal in Liguria rose more than two times during the period.
Snam reported 2022 adjusted net profit of 1.16 billion euros ($1.23 billion), down 4.5 percent when compared to the year before.
However, the company’s revenues increased 11.1 percent to 3.31 billion euros driven by growth in the energy transition businesses.
“We are releasing the results for 2022 with satisfaction and a hint of pride, but at the same time we are aware that the path we must follow to provide Italy with the infrastructure it needs to ensure full energy security has only just begun,” Stefano Venier, CEO of Snam, said in the statement.
“Over the past 12 months, we have been confronted with an extremely volatile scenario that has wrought deep changes in the energy markets and in the structure of the national system. This forced us to react quickly and effectively to ensure the availability of gas in the short and medium term,” he said.
Regas volumes
The Panigaglia (La Spezia) LNG import facility, operated by Snam’s unit GNL Italia, received 59 vessels in the period under review, 34 more ships compared to 2021.
It regasified 2.24 billion cubic meters of LNG during the last year, compared to 1.05 bcm in the year before.
According to Snam, the Panigaglia LNG terminal, Italy’s oldest regasification plant, has two 50,000 cbm LNG storage tanks and a regasification capacity of 3.5 bcm per year.
In October, Italy’s Eni started providing additional volumes of LNG to the regasification terminal ahead of the 2022-2023 winter and as part of its plan to strengthen and diversify gas supplies to Italy.
Eni said the LNG supplies from Algeria and Egypt were reloaded on smaller ships at Spanish terminals for them to be compatible with the Panigaglia terminal.
“Starting in April 2022 there was an increase in the volume of regasified LNG in Italy and a consequent increase in the number of ships unloaded, mainly due to the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine on the gas market, which led to an increase in the demand for LNG to meet domestic demand,” Snam said.
Snam’s data shows that the Adriatic LNG terminal regasifed 8.3 bcm last year, up 13.6 percent, while the FSRU Toscana regasified 3.7 bcm, a rise of 162.5 percent.
The Italian firm has stakes in both of these facilities.
Including the Paningaglia facility, it reported a 45 percent rise to 14.2 bcm in LNG regasification volumes at these plants.
These are the only three large LNG import facilities in Italy, but the country will get new terminals and also has small-scale plants such as the terminal in the port of Ravenna and the Higas terminal.
Two FSRUs
Last year, Snam bought one FSRU from BW and one from Golar and also signed a deal to convert LNG carrier Golar Arctic into an FSRU.
Snam plans to employ the 2015-built FSRU Golar Tundra to serve the terminal in Piombino and the 2015-built FSRU BW Singapore to serve the facility off Ravenna.
LNG Prime reported on February 21 that the FSRU Golar Tundra departed Keppel’s yard in Singapore.
The unit passed through the Suez Canal earlier this week on its way to Europe, according to its AIS data.
Snam previously said that that it expects the Piombino FSRU-based terminal to reach commercial operation in May 2023.
The firm did not provide an update in its 2022 results report.