Italy: IP, Snam4Mobility begin new natural gas station network

IP and Snam4Mobility have launched the first of 26 natural gas refuelling stations to be jointly build within the network of IP service stations in Italy.

IP API Group, a leading player in the Italian fuel and motorway services sector, and Snam4Mobility, Snam’s provider of integrated services for sustainable mobility using natural gas and biomethane, have launched the first of 26 natural gas refuelling stations that the companies will jointly build within the network of IP service stations in Italy.

Under the framework agreement signed in 2018, the first natural gas refuelling station was inaugurated in Rieti, in the region of Lazio. Another five distributors will open in Lazio by 2022, three of which will be located in IP motorway refuelling stations on the A1. Only one natural gas station existed in the region of Lazio so far, according to a press release.

In addition to Lazio, Snam4Mobility and IP will launch new natural gas refuelling stations in the regions of Lombardy (5 sites), Tuscany (5), Emilia-Romagna (2), Veneto (2), in Abruzzo (1), Calabria (1), Marche (1), Piedmont (1), Puglia (1) and Umbria (1).

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, says the release.

IP's strategy is to evolve and innovate the role of the fuel distribution network by ensuring a multi-energy and multi-service offer. 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 new openings adding to the 50 existing methane stations, and of electricity with the installation of fast and ultrafast charging stations.

Snam4Mobility’s 2020-2024 strategy plan envisages the construction of 150 new natural gas and biomethane refuelling stations, and the company’s first five hydrogen refuelling stations. A company wholly owned by Snam, Snam4Mobility executes compressed gas (CNG and bio-CNG) distribution infrastructures for cars, and liquefied gas (LNG and bio-LNG) for heavy transport.