The ecological transition needs gas security. The Proxigas assembly
Who was there and what was said at the public meeting of Proxigas, the Italian gas sector association
The public meeting of Proxigas took place today, the reference association in the gas sector, which brings together both companies operating in import and sales activities on the markets and those active in the management of transport, storage, regasification and distribution infrastructures. . The great transformations underway, also induced by the crises of recent years, make it necessary to identify new balances between the need to achieve environmental objectives and that of guaranteeing economic sustainability and security of supplies to accompany consumers, not only European ones, towards models more sustainable.
THE PROXIGAS PUBLIC ASSEMBLY
The centrality of gas in the energy system, the challenges that await it to continue to accompany the country's development, the reflections of geopolitical tensions and other ongoing uncertainties were the topics on which the main players in the sector in Italy discussed. A round table attended by the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, the president of Arera, Stefano Besseghini, the general director of Natural Resources of Eni, Guido Brusco, the CEO of Italgas, Paolo Gallo, the president of Federacciai, Antonio Gozzi, the director of Enel Italia, Nicola Lanzetta, the CEO of Edison, Nicola Monti, the CEO of Snam, Stefano Venier, and the president of Assocarta, Lorenzo Poli.
SIGNORETTO (PROXIGAS): INVESTING IN DECARBONIZATION
“Over the last year, the institutions and operators of the gas system have been able to manage a certainly complex situation, and Italy is now well prepared to face next winter,” declared the president of Proxigas, Cristian Signoretto. “However – he added – there are elements of uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, the actual availability of supply infrastructures and the variability of consumption due to the winter weather, which could in any case determine situations of volatility, also considering that we import almost all of the gas we consume. It is necessary to further secure the system and invest in its decarbonisation. To do this, the supply of gas on the market must be increased; strengthen infrastructure to make our supply system more flexible and diversified, also to accommodate green gases, and strengthen the role of storage. Only in this way could we achieve a stabilization of prices at sustainable levels for the production system and families and, at the same time, enable the development of renewable energy sources and the phase out of coal by reducing emissions from the energy sector".
“In the first nine months of 2023 in Italy, Russian gas via pipe was worth only 5 percent of demand, compared to growth in LNG. Today LNG is worth 25 percent of Italian imports; in Europe 39 percent. The growing role of liquefied natural gas allows for greater diversification of supplies, but at the same time exposes Italy and Europe to greater price volatility because LNG is affected by global competition, in particular with Asia". Thus the president of Proxigas, Cristian Signoretto, at the public meeting of the association. “Today in Italy the price of gas is around 50 euros per megawatt hour. Price volatility is expected to remain for the next 2-3 years,” added Signoretto.
BUCCI (PROXIGAS): IN 2022 ITALY WILL BE THE FIFTH GAS IMPORTER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
“We wanted to use our annual assembly to draw attention to the need to do more, as Europe and as Italy, to build a global supply of sustainable energy capable of satisfying a growing global demand, due to the demographic increase and economic development", explained Marta Bucci, general director of Proxigas, who added: "the use of the most polluting fuels – coal and oil – must be urgently reduced, which today are still the most used energy sources globally . Unfortunately, the forecasts on the growth of emissions, even the recent ones from the IPCC report, are not comforting: Europe cannot only support its own energy transition but, also in order not to frustrate the economic and social efforts underway, it must adopt a governance that directs sustainable growth globally. For gas we must promote the development of reserves to avoid situations of imbalance between supply and demand on the global market leading to greater use of coal and therefore a further increase in emissions, as unfortunately we observed during 2022".
“Global gas production – continued the CEO of Proxigas – has gone from around 3,000 billion cubic meters in 2010 to over 4,000 billion cubic meters in 2022, while the European Union has reduced gas production from 127 billion/m3 to 41 billion/m3. The EU, however, saw gas consumption grow from 2015 to 2021, recording a reduction of 12% in 2022. This was explained by Marta Bucci, general director of Proxigas, at the public meeting of the association. “In 2022 – added Bucci – our country will consume 70 billion cubic meters of gas, depending on imports for 96%, compared to internal production of 3 billion. Last year, gas accounted for 38% of the energy mix, and Italy was the fifth gas importing country in the world, with 69 billion cubic metres”.
URSO MINISTER: SUPPORT INVESTMENTS IN TRANSPORT AND DISTRIBUTION INFRASTRUCTURE
“Gas is a central resource for the national and European energy system, also in anticipation of replacing fossil consumption in non-electrifiable industrial processes. Italy has one of the most interconnected gas systems in Europe, a strategic position that allows us to access the resources of North Africa and Azerbaijan, as well as having regasifiers and one of the most flexible storage systems on the continent." The Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, said this at the Proxigas assembly.
“To increase our energy security – added Urso – we must continue to support investments in transport infrastructure and distribution, as well as supporting the production of green gas. The government is committed to supporting the productive fabric in the process of decarbonising its processes through targeted tools to support investments. The competitiveness of the country's industrial fabric will be played on the sustainability of the costs of raw materials and energy and on the ability to innovate and invest in new technologies functional to the double transition, green and digital", concluded the minister.
BESSEGHINI (ARERA): DEFINE THE TOOLS FOR THE END OF THE PROTECTED MARKET
“We are a peninsula projected into the Mediterranean, but we are not the only entities with ambitions to control the flow trajectories of gas and energy raw materials”. Stefano Besseghini, president of Arera, said this at the Proxigas assembly. Besseghini referred to the government's plan to create a gas hub in Italy, and said that "we must become aware" of the fact that there are other medium powers interested in becoming a regional energy hub. “In addition to saying that we can be a gas hub, we need the tools to be able to be so.” The president of Arera added that "Italy can discuss this ambition with the European Union".
On the sidelines, Besseghini explained that "it is important to define the tools quickly enough to accompany vulnerable customers to the end of the protected market, through the various steps we have foreseen. We do a lot of work on consumer care, we try to provide information in the most complete way possible, but obviously it will be a complex process."
EMISSIONS FROM FOSSIL FUELS
The latest report from the United Nations IPCC shows that to date the decarbonisation trajectory is unfortunately still far from the target defined by the Paris agreements. Today in the world, the fossil fuels with the highest emissions – coal and oil – are the most used resources in the energy mix and in electricity generation. Europe and Italy are further along the transition path and have more virtuous energy mixes: Europe contributes 8% of total climate-changing emissions, our country less than 1%, also thanks to the greater use of gas , the most sustainable fossil fuel.
BRUSCO (ENI): WE WILL HAVE UNCERTAINTY ON THE GAS MARKET UNTIL THE END OF THE DECADE
“The uncertainty – declared Eni's general director of Natural Resources, Guido Brusco – will exist until the end of the decade, when greater quantities of LNG from the USA and Qatar will arrive on our market. The increase in demand had sent us a signal even before the pandemic, and the situation was then exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. In Europe we found ourselves lacking domestic energy production, we were highly exposed and gas was the resource to turn to. We had to equip ourselves and like Eni we used 2 levers: gas through pipes with agreements in Algeria and new LNG contracts in Congo and Mozambique. It will also be necessary to equip Italy with infrastructure. The mix of storage, infrastructure and availability of gas is what will allow us to guarantee security, price sustainability and the energy transition."
MONTI (EDISON): WE ARE GOING TOWARDS VARIABILITY FOR 30% OF GAS VOLUMES
Edison's CEO, Nicola Monti, explained that “we are faced with variability of up to 30% of volumes. We need to have the ability to attract gas that can be directed towards markets other than the one of origin. Having storage and infrastructure is not enough to guarantee supply, we need to have an increase in gas availability and, to do this, important investments are needed".
LANZETTA (ENEL): A FOURTH REGASIFIER IS ESSENTIAL
“The more you manage to diversify, the less dependent you are on the blackmail of gas suppliers”, stated the director of Enel Italia, Nicola Lanzetta, who added: “in addition to the ships, the project of the fourth regasifier is fundamental, which is important and definitive to diversify supply. It is a strategic infrastructure that can represent insurance, it would guarantee 8 billion cubic meters of gas. Gas is the healthiest instrument, so regasifiers are essential."
VENIER (SNAM): THE RAVENNA REGASIFICATION PLANT WILL BE READY IN 2025
According to Snam's CEO, Stefano Venier, “that of the Ravenna regasification terminal is a more complex situation than that of Piombino. To date we are at 25% of the progress of the works on the pipeline on land and 10% of the works at sea. We plan to complete them by the end of 2024, in order to make the regasifier available starting from 2025. This plant will give us 14 billion cubic meters of gas for one side of Italy and another 14 billion for the other side, and we it will guarantee 40% of gas available through LNG and 60% via pipeline. In this way, Italy will have 5 pipelines in 5 different production areas, so we will have significant diversification."
GALLO (ITALGAS): THE GAS NETWORK MUST TRANSFORM
For the CEO of Italgas, Paolo Gallo, “to achieve the objectives of the ecological transition, technological neutrality and diversification of the energy mix are fundamental. Biomethane, hydrogen and synthetic gases can be the future of the green molecule, but to do so the role of gas distribution is central. The network must transform and become flexible and digital, and Italgas has been on a path in this direction for years. We need to promote the production of biomethane, and the recent agreement we have signed with Coldiretti was created precisely to achieve this objective."
GOZZI (FEDERACCIAI): BY 2030 WE WANT TO PRODUCE COMPLETELY GREEN STEEL
“Italy – said the president of Federacciai, Antonio Gozzi – is the only European country in which 80% of gas production is achieved with electric furnaces. By 2030 we want to be the first to produce completely green steel. To do this we need to focus on nuclear energy in the long term, while in the short-medium term gas has a strategic function, and in this sense CCS can help".
POLI (PAPER): THE PAPER INDUSTRY CONSUMES 2.5 BILLION CUBIC METERS OF GAS PER YEAR
“The paper sector is a hard to abate sector. It is the sector that consumes the most gas of all, 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, because through gas we create the steam necessary to dry the paper". Thus the president of Assocarta, Lorenzo Poli. “In recent years, thanks to gas we have built a paper supply chain that has become the second in Europe in terms of production. The paper industry – added Poli – runs 95% on gas and uses self-production with increased co-generation, also thanks to the regulations of past years. In the future we will evaluate CCS and the use of biomethane, because gas will probably still be fundamental in our sector by 2050".
MINISTER PICHETTO FRATIN: CONTINUE ON THE DECARBONIZATION PATH
At the conclusion of the public meeting of Proxigas, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, spoke: "we must move towards decarbonisation, but not because the 0.8% global share of emissions will change the fate of the world, but also to make it a reason for economic growth, productive and industrial development. This is why we must move forward in this direction."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/proxigas-assemblea-pubblica-novembre-2023/ on Mon, 20 Nov 2023 16:31:41 +0000.