It was held on June 24th the Monthly Smart Talk organized by the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce, which saw as guest Mrs. Alessandra Pasini, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief International and Business Development Officer of SNAM and Mario Franchin, Senior Vice President Commercial Global Solutions of SNAM, which was particularly focused on energy transition, green energy and related opportunities in the Mediterranean Area.
After the introductory greetings by the President of the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce Giuseppe Marino, the discussion was moderated by Mr. Constantinos Taliotis, Partner of PWC Cyprus in charge of the Energy Team.
The Smart Talk was enhanced by explaining the role of SNAM, one of the biggest Italian company as well as one of the few that are in the global elite of energy firm, which had in the last eight years an important international expansion, recently entering Abu Dhabi and Greece’s market, other than establishing their business unit in China and in the U.S.
The guests underlined that SNAM’s core business is founded on the three pillars of security, energy transition, and energy efficiency, paying particular attention to cost containment. In the new era of renewables, SNAM believes that this is a great opportunity for companies in this sector as the industries will move to a substantial reduction in the use of fossil fuels and Europe is leading in this process.
Furthermore, Cyprus and its neighbor countries such as Israel and Egypt are dealing with a huge amount of energy resources. One of them is LNG, which will play an important role in decarbonization. Cyprus, Israel, and Egypt have a strategic geographical position and additionally, they have their own gas, so with the new discoveries, they can be more competitive, and build physical pipelines to connect different countries to exploit and monetize their resources.
The Cyprus National Energy and Climate Plan for 2021-2030 is implementing new strategies to modernize and liberalize the energy and electricity markets, and in this regard is fundamental digitalization. SNAM has supported Italy in this process, investing 6.7 Billion Euro to adopt a completely smart system in their network, and, based on their experience, they have the full capability to support other countries that modernize their networks and infrastructure.
Finally, the Smart Talk gave some insight into green hydrogen and its related technology, which will play a relevant role in the energy transition as the EU Green Deal and above all the National Recovery and Resilient Plan. SNAM is a global leader in this field, pioneering in the sector as they created a dedicated business unit on hydrogen. Nowadays already 70% of their network is ready for hydrogen and they will invest 7.4 Billion Euro between 21021 and 2024 in this sector, focusing also on internationalization.
The conclusions of the meeting were left to the Vice President of the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce Federico Franchina, who highlighted how the current phase of energy transition can be a leverage for the implementation of new technologies, representing a great opportunity for Cyprus and the whole Eastern Mediterranean area.
For information and insights on the activities of the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce: segreteria@camcomitacipro.it
Last modified: February 1, 2022