Gazprom lurks behind acquisition of Hungarian gas distributor

May 7, 2009, 13:13 GMT

Budapest - Hungary's largest gas distribution company Emfesz has been sold to Swiss-based firm RosGas AG, Emfesz spokesman Igor Gallyas said Thursday, confirming a report in the Russian newspaper Vedomosti.

The news has prompted speculation that the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which is believed to be behind RosGas, is looking to strengthen its hold over the Hungarian, and by extension, the EU market.

Gallyas, speaking to the Hungarian news agency MTI, neither confirmed nor denied the part of the Vedomosti report that said RosGas is part of Gazprom's family of subsidiaries.

However, in a statement posted on its website on April 28, Emfesz said that RosGas is part of Gazprom's network of business interests.

Emfesz is the largest player on Hungary's deregulated gas market, handling around a quarter of all imports.

It was, until now, indirectly owned by the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash through a Cyprus-based holding company.

Firtash also owns 45 per cent of RosUkrEnergo, also Swiss registered, which until January had a stranglehold on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe. Gazprom owns 50 per cent of the company.

Gazprom stopped supplying RosUkrEnergo with gas during the crisis in January when a dispute over pricing between Ukraine and Russia led to shortages across Central Europe.

Emfesz announced at the end of April that it would temporarily stop importing gas from Ukraine as it switched suppliers, from RosUkrEnergo to the hitherto obscure RosGas.

After the crisis in January, the Ukrainian authorities denied RosUkrEnergo access to 11 billion cubic metres of gas stored in Ukraine that the firm maintains it owns.