UNEM President Gianni Murano expounds on current issues concerning the fuel network during an interview for Oil&nonOil. The President declares that the mantras for governmental and parliamentary action should be energy transition and ensuring the famous three legs of the transition: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability. Murano argues that, on this topic, the government is already making a commitment by showing careful signals to their sector, on biofuels and decarbonisation. To achieve this, it is crucial to support consumption and the investment framework for the coming years. Between EUR 8 and 10 million of investments are expected to drive the sector towards decarbonisation, which is the ultimate goal to be effectively achieved. In all of this, the transformation of refining also plays a role, which in Italy has begun to be seen with the closure of refineries and through steps taken in a progressive manner in a conversion towards bio-refineries.
«If we believe we need a rationalisation of the network, we have to do it. If we don’t believe in it, let’s not waste time» Murano says. The Italian distribution network includes 21,700 outlets, twice the European average, and an efficient network should have around 15,000.
According to Murano, the real problem is how to arrive at a solution: discarding the hypothesis of forced closures, the sector needs suitable tools to deal with closures, and in particular it’s crucial to try to equip the sector with tools that can encourage the conversion of outlets selling petrol and diesel to outlets that can offer energy services such as electric recharging and, one day, even hydrogen. To achieve this, however, there needs to be investment and petrol stations need to have a certain structure.
A service station is all the more economically viable when it can be efficient in terms of delivery but also as an opportunity to offer energy services that meet a diverse customer base. The fuel network lends itself by nature to the development of energy transition and to offering energy services. Murano argues that there’s a lot of relevance between the fuel network and what could be the energy services network of the future: where the customer makes the contract for the electricity of his home, he could also make the contract for the electricity of his car.