Good afternoon. This is the Chorus conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Snam first quarter 2022 financial results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Stefano Venier, CEO of Snam. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome. I'm here with Alessandra and the IR team. Let me introduce myself first. I'm Stefano Venier. I'm being appointed as Snam CEO on April 27th, and therefore, I'm in the office since a couple of weeks, I would say. As some of you know, I've spent my, the last eight years as CEO of Hera Group, Italian multi-utility, but I've been in this industry since 30 years. I have to say that I began my journey at Snam at a decisive time in which we must consolidate our energy security while at the same time continuing to pursue the energy transition. Snam is ideally placed to contribute to addressing both those challenges and deliver sustainable growth. I give you my brief update on quarter's key highlights, and then I leave the floor to Alessandra for a detailed analysis of our results.
On page two. In terms of the market context, we are obviously in extraordinary situation with continuing gas demand growth, high prices, and rising inflation. Gas demand was up 1.3%, mainly owing to lower hydro production in the power sector. Export to North Europe reached a record of 0.9 BCM. That is five times the previous year's level, confirming the growing role of Italy as a transport hub. Raw material prices and the cost of energy are driving a strong rebound in inflation. RAB deflator reached 2.1% on full year 2021, with impact on 2023 revenues, well above recent years levels. We recall that last three years average was at 0.6%. Inflation expectations have risen, triggering a tightening in monetary policy with an increase of the interest rates and spreads.
In this environment, the mark-to-market of WACC in 2025 is flat versus current level. In this environment, policy is supportive of Snam's role, both to ensure supply security and to enable the energy transition, as I said. You will have read that Italian government has mandated Snam to acquire two floating vessels for regasification of gas, one of which we are in the advanced negotiation. One, we expect within the next phase to sign a term sheet to start, let's say, an exclusive negotiation for the second vessel. Meanwhile, we are moving to define the framework on fully depreciated assets. As you probably know, on May 3rd, ARERA has given Snam a mandate to define and certify a methodology to determine which lines need to be substituted and which can be continued to be operated.
Which is a very positive step forward then to ensure the long-term health and viability of our assets. Snam continue to provide its essential service to the country while working to increase supply security. Italy has a relatively strong position, thanks to ample transport spare capacity and large storage facilities. As far as storage is concerned, we are at 42% full today. Also, thanks to the gas injected by Snam that on ARERA request, has stored the operating volumes needed for the year in April, thus supporting the in-filling before the winter. In this context, we have delivered very strong results. EBITDA is up by 5.2% year-on-year, and adjusted net profit is up by 3.8% year-on-year, with higher RAB-based revenues and incentives, and the strong performance of associates.
Offsetting, in that sense, the impact of the reduction on weighted average cost of capital. Net debt reduction vis-à-vis year-end was driven by a temporary working capital swing. We have reached about 65% of sustainable funding, further progressing toward the target to reach more than 80% by 2025. We continue to make progress in our business, investing EUR 23 million, mainly in maintenance, replacement, and development, referring to new connections of biogas and CNG plants. We have executed a first tranche of the agreement reached with A2A at the end of 2021 by acquiring two plants for a total consideration of about EUR 17 million, and we are working with De Nora to apply by autumn for the resources made available by the national relaunch plan, PNRR, and IPCEI for H2 technologies.
On page three, to have, let's say, a global picture on the market integration and security. The current drive to increase supply security and accelerate the energy transition plays well to Snam's portfolio of assets. Our associates are located in strategic regions, which enables us to diversify risks and capitalize on opportunities. LNG will be key to Europe supply diversification, so it will require leveraging the large spare regasification capacity in the Iberian Peninsula. This is promoting the relaunch of the MidCat, the so-called MidCat project, which would increase by 8 BCM, the interconnection capacity with France. The investment is also consistent role with the development of the European hydrogen backbone. Our associate, Teréga, could be involved with a potential investment of around EUR 400 million.
In addition, an MOU has been signed between Snam and Enagás to jointly mandate a technical feasibility study for a potential construction of an onshore pipeline of 15-30 BCM, connecting Spain to Italy to diversify gas supply for Italy and Europe. The Greek government has submitted projects to the EU in the context of REPowerEU, which includes the following projects to increase the system flexibility and enhance the ability to supply the Balkans, which strongly rely on Russian gas. First, the increase of storage capacity in Revithoussa LNG Terminal through the installation on a floating system that will enable to use the terminal at full capacity. That is 70 BCM versus the current 2.5 BCM that has been reached in the past years, enhancing the optimization of the cargo's unloading scheduling.
Second, an overall upgrade of the pipes and compressor station to provide more flexibility in the transportation of increased natural gas flows, also versus neighboring countries. In addition, DESFA acquired at the end of last year the 20% stake of the Alexandroupolis LNG Terminal, which is expected to be operational by 2023, with a capacity of 5.5 BCM. TAP has worked at full capacity in the first quarter of 2022, covering nearly 10% of Italian demand. By the way, April topped the record in those deliveries. There is an ongoing market test to expand the capacity with the binding phase expected to expire by year-end. This could bring up to an additional 10 BCM of gas into the market within the next years.
The Interconnector UK is performing ahead of expectations, given its strong utilization in light of the gas spread, which has supported export flows from U.K. to Europe. TAG and GCA are the most exposed to Russian gas, given the weight of Russian volumes and key role of transit route to Italy. Nevertheless, we consider the assets to remain strategic, given the possibility to work in reverse flows from Italy to Austria and to provide the European market with gas today and hydrogen in the future.
Finally, our recent acquisition of stake in the Transmed pipeline, with closing expected in Q3, strengthen our position in the increasingly important import route from North Africa that is becoming even more important according to the recent agreements that Eni and Italian government has reached with the Algerian government to increase the export by 9 BCM within the next couple of years. Now I will hand over to Alessandra for a closer look to our results. Alessandra?
Thank you, Stefano. EBITDA for the period was EUR 588 million, up EUR 29 million versus last year. This was reached despite the effect of the WACC review that has been applied starting from January 2022, and which implied EUR 32 million CapEx between our transportation, regasification, and storage revenues. The WACC revision was more than offset by EUR 28 million increase in regulated revenues, mainly attributable to the tariff RAB growth for more than EUR 10 million. The positive commodity effect of EUR 8 million that is due to the good volumes commented before versus the reference volume level that was set three years ago, and also thanks to the record export volumes, as well as an increase in the output-based incentives, up plus EUR 7 million, mainly due to the default services provided during the quarter as 19 shippers went under financial stress.
Input-based incentives were down by around EUR 2 million, in line with the expected fade out. EUR 33 million of one-off contribution from the sale of past year gas on excess inventory. The sale was made in the Q4 2021 on a forward basis to make the gas available to the system in January 2022. Fixed costs rose by EUR 7 million. This is partially due to phasing effects, mainly referring to lower capitalization to be recorded in the next quarter and the remaining referred to higher utilities cost. EBITDA of new businesses increases by EUR 6 million versus first quarter of 2021, and the growth is mainly attributable to the strong performance of energy efficiency, mainly thanks to the residential business. Moving to our net profit. The net profit for the period was EUR 325 million, up EUR 12 million versus last year.
Interest expenses were slightly higher, driven by gross cost of debt that moved from 0.8% on a full-year basis 2021 to 0.9% in the first quarter. This is due to the issuance of a new EUR 1.5 billion sustainable linked bond in January 2022 at a marginally higher rate than 2021 average cost, as well as lower treasury management optimization opportunities as a consequence to lower debt levels, as an effect to temporary positive working capital. It is worth noting that the bond issuance was executed with a very good timing and cover large part of the funding plans for this year, locking in competitive costs of an average of 1% for a 10-year maturity compared to current condition that would be close to a 3% for a similar tenor bond.
Associates' contribution was higher by EUR 10 million, mainly due to the strong performance of our Interconnector UK associate that is already close to its maximum yearly potential contribution, thanks to higher export flows supported by gas prices spread and greater LNG availability in U.K., which is an effect we already saw in the last quarter of 2021. The very strong results of De Nora, driven by revenue growth, thanks to good performance of water and electrodes, coupled with an increase in profitability and very strong fixed cost control, as well as a very robust backlog, which paves the way for another strong year. These effects were partially offset by the expected decline of DESFA due to lower regulatory tariff and higher energy costs, whose recovery will occur from 2023 based on the Greek regulation. The average tax rate for the period is circa 23.5%.
Turning now to our cash flow. The cash flow from operations for the period amounted to EUR 1.7 billion, including EUR 1.2 billion of cash generation from changing working capital. This strong positive effect is temporary, and we do expect a reversal in the next quarters. As we have previously explained, from January 2020, Snam is responsible to cover gaps between intakes and outtakes of the distribution network, buying and selling gas on a daily basis at market prices. Moreover, Snam operates as a default service provider, meaning that it is required to supply gas for a limited period of time to customers whose shippers lost the commercial conditions to operate in the market.
These activities can generate temporary working capital wins due to the timeline of reimbursement without any impact on our P&L, except for interest income due in case of delayed by customers benefiting from this service. Snam can benefit from some output of base margin from the default service as occurred in this quarter. In March 2022, the change in working capital was mainly the result of EUR 1.2 billion favorable cash generation from balancing and settlement activities that include the collection of receivables for around half a billion EUR related to gas purchase carried out in the last months of 2021 to cover shippers' short position in the market, an increase in payables of services for almost EUR 900 million related to Snam gas sale to balance shipper that were long position in the first three months of 2022.
Additional cash generation due to the increase in shipper deposits as a result of the increase in gas prices and a small positive balance of the settlement activities for something more than EUR 100 million. This was partially offset by an increase in the receivables related to the default services that I commented before for almost EUR 300 million. Among other minor changes, we also experienced some absorption of cash from energy efficiency due to the growth of the phase of the deep renovation line of business as expected. Other outflows of the period have been the net investments related to our CapEx plan, as well as CapEx-related , in addition to the cash out for the acquisition of our Anzio and Polignano plants as part of the broader A2A agreement. The interim dividend paid was EUR 344 million. Thank you for your attention.
Stefano and I will now be pleased to answer any questions.
This is the Chorus Call operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Harry Wyburd, Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks very much for taking my questions and welcome to the new CEO. Three for me, please. The first is just on the sale of last year's gas inventories, which benefited the Q1 numbers. I just wondered if you could give us a bit of an explanation of what happened there, because I guess we're quite used to Snam being not sensitive to pricing or volume. I just want to understand why that was able to generate a material increase in earnings. That's the first question. The second one is, given you've had that and better performance in the Interconnector UK, why didn't you increase your net income guidance slightly?
Is it now just a sort of lower bound for net income guidance for the full year? The third one, I guess, to the new CEO, it's probably a bit too early to ask what your kind of strategic views will be given you've only been in seat for a couple of weeks. Do you plan to have a capital markets day or a strategy update or something like that later in the year? When can we expect to hear on what your view is or vision is for Snam? Thank you.
When it comes to the gas inventories, this was a really unique phenomenon, so you shouldn't be concerned about volatility. As a result of past management of gas losses in the system, we had accumulated a small excess of the inventories that is not required for our operational activities. As a result of having now a very clear situation on that, we just took the decision of make those gas volumes available to the system, on a month that typically is a good month for providing liquidity.
That's simply why we decided at the end of last year to do what had to be done, let's say, but we had never had, and we will not be having in the future, excess inventory. This is really a unique phenomenon that was a result of the very peculiar situation emerging for the prior two years, I would say. It's really a true one-off in this sense. When it comes to the guidance, Stefano?
Oh, no.
I think that when it comes to the guidance, you should recall that we had anticipated some contribution from out-of-base incentives related to the replacement for 2022, which, as you could guess from the publication from ARERA, that has taken place on the third of May, it's unlikely to be happening in 2022. If you, on one side, take that into account as a minus, and you take the contribution of the one-off on gas sales on the other, we are consistent with what we told you before in terms of the guidance of EUR 1.1 billion.
The next question is from Javier Suarez with Mediobanca.
No. Just a moment. I'm sorry. I have a question I need to reply, and that is about.
Okay.
As you said, I'm in the office since a couple of weeks, but of course, as I said, I'm in the industry since 30 years. The situation is really, let's say, evolving, I would say. As I told you, there is a significant effort now we are devoting to, also to secure those two vessels for the regas and to try to put on stream as soon as possible. Reasonably, we count to have one on stream next year and the second in 2024. This is only one of the things we are reviewing.
Therefore, I think that for time being, the strategy of the company is the one that I mentioned in my introduction, that is working for security of gas, focusing on the investments on the core infrastructure that now is required, and of course, supporting the long run, the transition. As you probably read in the press release we made, we will make an update of the business plan by January next year. Fall of the year will be therefore dedicated to capture some of the effects that are ongoing. The latter was mentioned by Alessandra, that is also this review on according to the last ARERA document, consulting document. There are many things ongoing. We will keep you updated.
Of course, we will have other two interim periods that will represent the opportunity to keep you updated on what is going on.
Okay. Many thanks.
The next question is from Javier Suarez with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and congratulations to the new CEO. Three questions from me, as well. The first one is a follow-up on the guidance for 2020 and 2022. You have explained the offsetting factor of lower out-of-base incentive compensated by a higher contribution from the gas disposal, this one-off. Is the guidance also confirmed in terms of net debt and on CapEx by the year-end? I think that in the latest strategic presentation, you mentioned something like EUR 14.8 billion of debt, and then a CapEx of EUR 1.5 billion. I know that there are several moving pieces here, but any guidance on these two numbers would be useful.
Second question is on the obviously there are plenty of CapEx opportunities related to the necessity to redesign the European gas sector. Can you give us an order of dimension of the CapEx opportunity that the other interconnection with Spain would imply for a company like Snam or an order of dimension of the additional CapEx that you foresee as a consequence of a significantly different geopolitical scenario? Also, can you help us to understand when do you envisage that the company will start to invest on hydrogen-related opportunities? The very last question is on this Monday by ARERA on a proposal on how to remunerate the fully the
Javier, on the guidance of net debt, you will have seen that the first quarter had a very strong positive cash flow coming from tariff-related item, which we, as I said, expect to revert. We are currently confirming our CapEx plan absent new things on which, as Stefano mentioned, we are working, like FSRU. Without considering that, we confirm what we said before. We expect the reversal of these items and effectively land based on the same CapEx plan, on the same net debt guidance that we indicated before.
Hi, Javier. Thank you for your message at the beginning. About the priorities and the opportunities across Europe, I think we will look forward to see the new REPowerEU document that will be released within the next seven-15 days. Because in that document, we will see the final conclusions in terms of priorities that Europe is setting, on one side, to let's say, reduce the dependence or, let's say, drive to zero the dependence on Russian gas. On the other side, the initiatives that will be promoted, supported, eventually, even with, let's say, some funding to increase and enhance the interconnection between countries.
As far as Snam is concerned, I mentioned the opportunity to work on the relaunch of the project called MidCat between Spain and France. That is a sizable investment that as far as the entire project is concerned, is EUR 3 billion. The part related to Teréga, as I mentioned, was EUR 400 million. Therefore, it's a sizable opportunity we see in the reasonable near future. I think that the attitude of the governments that initially, in the past, weren't supporting the project now turning, especially the Spanish government. On the other side, I also mentioned the mainstream from east that is based on the DESFA developments and the TAP.
The TAP market test will turn out with the final results by year-end, and this will guarantee a two-step development. First step, to increase and to enhance by 25% the capacity of the network, and then by 100% of capacity within the next four to five years eventually. The total investment for step two is EUR 1 billion. Of course, we're gonna participate for the stake we have. The third, let me say, is more within the country, because with this swing in the different flows of gas, of course, we will in the next month review the scheduled plan for investments to refocus priorities to support this change in the Italian flows. As we said, the...
In a more detailed focus, what could be the opportunities to, let's say, strengthen the export or the reverse flow chances. Yeah. About the hydrogen investment, of course, we are progressing. The strategy is one that has been set in the recent past. About the opportunities or if I got your question, extra return for investments in the hydrogen area, this is a discussion that is still ongoing. We do expect on the basis of, let's say, the decision that has been taken in Germany, that there is ground for supporting this kind of request with the national authorities. To be frank, we don't have any decision that we expect to get soon on that side. On the fully depreciated assets and the regulations for them?
As Alessandra said, I mean, we had this document that is expected, on which we should, let's say, reply by September. There is a reasonable timeframe to see the final decisions by the authority by the end of the year. We reasonably expect, or we have the expectation to see the new system applied from 2023. Of course, this is our expectation. I think that the timing allows to, let's say, underpin this expectation.
Okay, many thanks.
The next question is from Roberto Ranieri with Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, everyone. Congratulations, Stefano, for the new appointment. I have two questions, please. The first one is on the energy transition projects. Could you please give us an update on the biomethane plans, how they are now, your projects in the biomethane business are proceeding, if there, at the moment, there will be or there are already new authorization process procedures expediting the construction of these projects. One more question on the energy transition.
Are you also considering in your future also projects in the circular economy like producing gas from waste? Which probably is very familiar, I suppose it's very familiar, to you during the previous experience. My last question is on the gas scene. You mentioned the offshore projects in your presentation, offshore projects from Spain to Italy.
I'm wondering if this is economically viable, and/or other alternatives such as offshore pipelines through France using Teréga, your participation in Teréga, so Spain to Italy from north could be another additional option or not necessarily competing with the offshore option. Thank you very much.
Okay. Just back to your first question about the developments on the biomethane activities. First of all, let me say that we have 18 megawatts of capacity that is already operating. We have 10 megawatts that is under construction. Of course, the speed up in those developments depends on the release, the final release on the new, let's say, decree that has to regulate the incentives for this kind of production. As you probably know, the draft of this new decree has been sent to the European Commission at the end of February, and the Italian government is still waiting for a feedback from the European Commission.
Of course, given also the new targets that the REPowerEU is gonna set on the biomethane production on a European basis, I do expect that this new decree will be enacted by maximum a month or something like that. Including that, in that decree, there are rumors that there will be a sort of an extension of the existing incentive scheme by 12 months. Okay, that would be extremely positive for those assets that are presently under construction. I think that further projects will be kicked off after the review of this new decree that of course are fundamental to guarantee an adequate return on those kind of investments.
As far as extending the production of biomethane from waste, as a matter of fact, we do already do that in the sense that part of the assets produce the biomethane through the dry fermentation of the organic part of the waste. Specifically, the two assets that we recently bought from A2A in the overall transaction that was mentioned before are fully dedicated or are fully fed with organic waste. Therefore, we are on the same field already. About your general question on the, if I got it correctly, the competitiveness of a possible interconnection between Spain and Italy with respect to the other possible interconnection that could, let's say, link directly Italy with France. Let me say it's a pre-feasibility study.
Of course, the basis, the economic rationale and strategic rationale behind this pre-feasibility is based on the fact that Spain has, as you know, a huge capacity, unused capacity of LNG. Therefore, this could be, let's say, a mean for connecting directly that capacity to the Italian market with the perspective of exporting towards Central Europe, these additional kind of flows. Of course, there can be, let's say, alternatives, as any time that we will examine, but the benefit of this, say, possible project is the magnitude on one side and the fact that being offshore, it's much to a certain extent, it's easier to be deployed with the on ground.
Last point is that makes this idea to have some reasonable ground is the fact that the MidCat interconnection has a total maximum capacity of a BCM. That is a small part of the spare capacity that Spain has. Therefore, these are the thoughts we made with Enagás, and therefore, we decided to make this pre-feasibility that I think in not more than three, four months will tell us the key core outcomes. That is the cost, the first estimate of cost, and the technical complexity in delivery this kind of infrastructure.
Thank you, Stefano.
The next question is from Bartlomiej Kubicki with Societe Generale. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation, and let me join the congratulations. Three issues I would like to discuss with you, please. Firstly, on the non-regulated side, you sort of seems to be finally gaining some momentum in terms of earnings and in terms of revenues. I would like to ask you whether you see any risks which could actually derail this momentum this year. Some companies are mentioning supply chain disruptions in energy efficiency activities, for instance, or inflationary pressure. That will be one question. Secondly, on associates, I think Alessandra mentioned the EUR 10 million earned by Interconnector UK is sort of the maximum to be earned. I understand it refers to a quarter, which would potentially make EUR 40 million for the year.
Consequently, what would be your estimate for associates contribution for this year, providing Interconnector's good performance continues and TAG is not impacted by the ongoing situation? Lastly, pure curiosity, you have 4.5 BCM of strategic storage. You also have a line on your balance sheet which refers to strategic gas storage, EUR 360 million. I just wonder, I mean, if you look at those storage, strategic storage, is it full or what is that? What is the level of being full? As a result, what actually needs to happen for the strategic storage to be withdrawn? If something like that happens, is it actually your gas sitting in the strategic storage?
Consequently, if this is sold on the market at spot prices, you can realize some gains versus the book value of the storage, which we can see on your balance sheet. How would it work? Thank you.
On the non-regulated side, just picking up on what Stefano was saying before, clearly there is some momentum, and the speed at which we will continue to progress will be a function of how quickly there will be clarity on the new decree, particularly on the biomethane on one side. On the other side, it is indeed true that we are seeing a slowdown on the supply of certain materials. We do expect the sign of growth that we are seeing in the first quarter to continue for the rest of the year. We expect more or less to keep the same pace. You have seen it's a EUR 4 million EBITDA contribution.
I think a good assumption is to assume that the other three quarters that are left will be similar in this regard. When it comes to Interconnector UK, the mechanics of revenue recognition based on the way the system works and doesn't envisage capital. Ultimately, we are unfortunately for us and for the other shareholders of Interconnector UK, we are not going to see it simply multiplied by four. We expect the overall contribution to continue to increase, but marginally through the year. Giving you an overall indication, last year we ended up with EUR 220 million on the international side of contribution from our associates.
We are targeting likely less of that as a combination of the usual decline that we expect with assets like DESFA as well as with TAG, which will be compensated by the strong performance of Interconnector, a flat performance of TAP, and a flat performance of our ADNOC stake. Depending on when actually the closing will occur on our Transmed asset, we may have some contribution kicking in. We are currently targeting the last couple of months of the year, but we clearly do not control the timing of the CPs that will determine the inclusion in our perimeter of corridor.
Call it roughly speaking, EUR 10 million less than last year, as combination of these effects that we commented. When it comes to the storage, it's storage, so it's actually something that can be part of the system. Equally, it's around 4.5 BCM of volumes related to that. It's something that is called strategic because if needed, it can be part of the volumes that we make available to the system. Clearly, depending on which part of the year we are, the extraction of those volumes can be more or less complicated, i.e.
They may require more intervention from our compressor unit to help the extraction, i.e., as storage works with pressure, when pressures goes down in the operating performance, you will need to apply the compressor unit to actually extract it. But it's gas that can be made available to investors.
Ladies and gentlemen, please hold the line. The conference will resume shortly. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please hold the line. The conference will resume shortly. Thank you.
Uh-
Excuse me. This is the operator. Mr. Venier, you can please go ahead.
Okay. I do apologize. It seems we had a technical problem. We were put offline, so now we are back. I don't know if there is any additional question for myself and Alessandra. Please go ahead.
Mr. Kubicki, your line is open if you had any additional question.
Yeah, apologies, because on the storage side, we only. I think I only heard about the compression units working harder, but then it was interrupted. Maybe if Alessandra, you can actually sort of-
Yes.
Fill us in.
What I said is, just to recap, what I said is it's approximately 4.5 BCM. It's part of our re-regulated asset base, so it's a non-asset. Therefore it's remunerated under the current regulation, and it can be made available to the system when needed. I was simply saying that depending when you actually need, if you have exhausted the rest of your volumes in the storage, it would just be, it would require mechanical support to be extracted as the pressure would be low. That's, in a shorter version, what I said before.
Okay. Do you own this gas sitting in those strategic storage or no, given the?
Yes.
given the balance sheet entry?
It is part of our RAB, so yes, we do own it.
Just to confirm, can you earn actually on that should it be extracted?
It's part of our RAB, so it's remunerated, so yes, we do earn it, just to make it available when needed to the system.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question is from Stefano Gamberini with Equita SIM. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Stefano also from my side, and sincere good luck for this new professional challenge. I have three question also from my side. The first regarding the EUR 3 billion project for the hydrogen backbone, does it included in the ten-year energy plan submitted to ARERA, and do you have some feedbacks on this or not? You said we expect the react plan, but on this side, what are the first reaction in Italy on this on this topic? The second regarding also this ten-year plan, you underlined that the gas flow from TAP could double.
In this case, the strengthening of the Adriatic backbone that is forecast after 2030, and if I'm not wrong, it account around EUR 2.4 billion could be bring forward due to this additional flows from the south of Italy. The second topic was regarding the two floaters. Probably I lost the answer, but when this could arrive, do you know what are the total investment and are this investment going to be included in the RAB? The final one is regarding the storage. You said that there are a lot of opportunities in this sector that could arrive in your view. You have $1.2 billion CapEx in the storage in the business plan.
Do you see some opportunities also in this sector and, could this be, exploited in the forthcoming years? Many thanks. Could you hear me? Hello?
Yeah. We could hear you.
Sorry.
I was just collecting the information about your first question, that is, that is regarding the project of the hydrogen backbone that has been included in the 10-year investment plan that has been submitted to the ARERA. As you know, it's under the consulting phase, and we don't have any feedback yet. I think it's gonna be well received also because the new REPowerEU program has raised the total target for hydrogen volumes by 2030 and going forward. Now, for reaching those kind of volumes, you need to have large backbones and infrastructure to, let's say, ship the hydrogen from south to north and from north to central Europe.
About the Adriatic project, of course, when I was saying that in the next months, according to the finalization of the FSRU deals and other changes that happened, that will happen on the flows, we will review the schedule of investments. The Adriatic pipeline is gonna be one of those major investment that will be scrutinized more carefully to understand whether and when could make sense to anticipate those, that kind of investment. Of course, again, the REPowerEU document will be fundamental to understand if any kind of financial support will be dedicated to those kind of strategic investments that, by the way, would represent a pillar for, let's say, stepping forward an Italian hub for gas for export towards Central Europe.
About the floating vessels, the FSRU, of course, one of the points, one of the question was when we will finalize those transactions. Of course, as I told you, we are under, let's say, exclusive negotiation with one of the vessels that we expect to end by the next weeks, and the second will come just afterwards. Again, to understand the mechanism to regulate this vessel, we are looking forward to see the new decree that the government should release in the next days. That will be, again, fundamental to, let's say, understand how will be managed. In terms of storage opportunities, I think are those that were listed in the presentation of the business plan. Nothing has changed significantly on that side.
As you know, storage, the development of new storage facility takes time, therefore need to be planned fairly in advance. I think that, reviewing the business plan as I did with the team, in the last days, those are the opportunities that are still on table.
Many thanks.
The next question is from Jose Ruiz with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Just one question left, from my side. Can you update us on your intentions of floating De Nora? Thank you.
Nothing has changed versus what we told you before. The intention together with the family are still there. Clearly the market environment is a bit volatile, to say the least. We are very comforted by the very strong results that De Nora continues to deliver. The first thing is, as an investor in De Nora, we are looking forward to another very strong year in 2022, and we remain convinced of the opportunity to progress with the listing process. You will be updated at the right point in time when decisions will be taken.
Thank you.
Mr. Venier, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for the closing remarks.
Thanks to everybody that participated to this conference call, and I hope to meet you in person very soon. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.