The first of the 26 new natural gas refuelling stations that Snam4Mobility will build within the network of IP distributors was opened today in Rieti, Lazio under the framework agreement signed in 2018 by the two companies.
The Rieti distributor, in via Oreste di Fazio, inaugurated the first phase of plants contracted by Snam4Mobility and IP. In addition to this, in Lazio another five distributors will be opened by 2022, three of which are located in motorway refuelling stations on the A1 (Mascherone East-Rome, Mascherone West-Rome, A1 Casilina Est Frosinone). This marks a significant implementation for methane car drivers in Rieti; so far only one natural gas station existed in the region.
The new service area was inaugurated in the presence of IP’s Sales Director, Simone Alfonsi, and Snam4Mobility’s Senior Vice President Filling Stations, Andrea Ricci. To celebrate the occasion, the first refuelling was carried out on a premium-level methane car: an Audi A5 G-tron, combining performance and efficiency with environmental benefits.
The new opening represents an important milestone for the growth of a natural gas distribution infrastructure for transport throughout Italy, and the two companies plan to promote increasingly sustainable mobility. IP’s strategy is to evolve and innovate the role of the fuel distribution network which, by ensuring a multi-energy and multi-service offer, has turned into a strategic asset in the transition towards sustainable mobility. This strategy includes the introduction throughout the network of OPTIMO fuels, premium gasoline and diesel sold at the price of traditional fuels; of natural gas, with the new openings adding to the 50 existing methane stations, and up to electricity with the installation of fast and ultrafast charging stations that will allow extra-urban electric mobility.
Snam4Mobility, a company wholly owned by Snam, provides integrated services for sustainable “smart green” mobility using natural gas and biomethane. To strengthen the distribution network, Snam4Mobility executes compressed gas (CNG and bio-CNG) distribution infrastructures for cars and liquefied gas (LNG and bio-LNG) for heavy transport. Snam’s 2020-2024 strategy plan envisages the construction of 150 new natural gas and biomethane refuelling stations and of the first five hydrogen refuelling stations.
“Today we are expanding and completing our energy offer for mobility to customers in the province of Rieti. Being IP means precisely this: responding to the needs of Italians who move with a widespread network and a diversified offer, with an eye to environmental sustainability” said Simone Alfonsi, Sales Director of IP.
“We are happy to inaugurate the first plant in collaboration with Snam4Mobility and IP in Rieti today, which will help strengthen the supply of natural gas for transport in Central Italy. We confirm our commitment to invest in distribution infrastructure to allow alternative and sustainable fuels such as CNG, LNG, biomethane and bio-LNG to favour the decarbonisation of mobility, from cars to commercial vehicles, from heavy transport to local public transport” added Andrea Ricci, Senior Vice President Filling Stations of Snam4Mobility.
In addition to the Rieti point of sale and the others that will be launched in Lazio, the construction of new natural gas refuelling stations is planned in collaboration between Snam4Mobility and IP in Lombardy (5 plants, 3 of which are motorway), Tuscany (5 plants of which 4 motorway), Emilia-Romagna (2 motorway), Veneto (2 motorway), in Abruzzo (1 motorway), Calabria (1), Marche (1 motorway), Piedmont (1 motorway), Puglia (1) and Umbria (1 motorway).
Source: Snam