Snam confirms guidance after rise in first quarter sales
MILAN (Reuters) – Italian gas grid operator Snam on Thursday confirmed its targets for this year after reporting a 13% year-on-year rise in revenue for the first quarter.
Sales between January and March rose to 912 million euros ($1 billion) driven by the group’s regulated business, the company said.
Adjusted core earnings rose 1.5% to 597 million euros in the period thanks to the growth in the group’s energy transition business.
Gas demand in Italy in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to 20.5 billion cubic metres (bcm), down 19% year-on-year due to lower consumption in all sectors that Snam operates in.
Snam said the most recent estimates on the evolution in gas demand in Italy for 2023 were in line with 2022, when the country consumed 69 bcm.
The group, which also manages the bulk of Italy’s gas storage facilities, said the country was in good shape ahead of a winter season in which imports from Russia were expected to fall further.
“We face the coming winter with a much stronger and more resilient energy system thanks to storage facilities that are still 65% full,” Snam CEO Stefano Venier said in a statement.
The group is completing work on its new liquefied natural (LNG) gas terminal in the Tuscan port of Piombino, which is expected to start commercial operations by the end of this month.
($1 = 0.9084 euros)
(Reporting by Francesca Landini Editing by Alvise Armellini and Mark Potter)
