MILAN (Reuters) – The Italian government has chosen a former top manager of power network company Terna, Agostino Scornajenchi, to succeed Stefano Venier as CEO of gas grid group Snam, state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing administration controls Snam through CDP. Venier was appointed when the previous government led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi was still in power.
Scornajenchi, who served as Terna’s chief financial officer for six years until November 2023, currently heads the venture capital division of CDP.
Snam’s shareholders are expected to approve CDP’s proposal at a meeting on May 14.
Under Venier, who served a three-year mandate, Snam helped reduce Italy’s dependence on Russian gas by setting up two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and boosting supplies from North Africa and Azerbaijan.
Venier also clinched a deal with Edison to buy three gas storage sites and started work to boost the network’s transport capacity from southern to northern Italy to increase the flexibility of the national gas infrastructure.
Snam is a partner of energy major Eni in Italy’s first carbon capture and storage project and has won the support of the European Commission for building a grid to transport green hydrogen to northern Europe.
The group – which derives the bulk of its profit from regulated activities including gas, LNG transport and storage management – posted a 14% yearly increase of its adjusted core profit last year to 2.75 billion euros ($3 billion).
($1 = 0.8800 euros)
(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Giuseppe Fonte, editing by Alvise Armellini and Keith Weir)
