Elenger

History

The seed of company was planted on December 15, 1864, when Riga businessmen Mr. William Weir & Comp signed a concession agreement with the city of Reval (Tallinn), the capital of Estonia, for the construction and operation of a gas factory and water line in the city. The agreement was approved by His Imperial Majesty Alexander II.

In 1865, the first gas factory in Tallinn was completed, where the production of artificial gas from English coal began, which was initially used for street lighting. On December 17, the first gas lantern was lit on Tallinn Town Hall Square.

In 1948, the first gas transport company in Estonia was established From 1948–1957 it transported Estonian oil shale gas through the Kohtla-Järve – Leningrad pipeline to Leningrad, Later the pipeline was used in traverse mode to transport Russian natural gas to Estonia.

From 1963–1988, the company existed as the "General Administration of Gasification" under the Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR. In 1988, the name 'Eesti Gaas' was first introduced, and in 1990, it became a state enterprise. In 1993, AS Eesti Gaas was incorporated. The company was partly privatized in 1993–1995. In 1993, a 30% stake in Eesti Gaas was transferred to Lentransgaz (now: Gazprom Transgaz Saint Petersburg), a subsidiary of Gazprom, to eliminate the gas debt dispute. In 1994, Ruhrgas (later: E.ON Ruhrgas) acquired about 15% of the company's shares while the management of the company, together with other private investors and the UK-based Baltic Republic Fund, acquired 7.5% of shares both. As a result, the government of Estonia kept a 39% stake. In December 1996, Ruhrgas increased its stake to 21%; 12% was sold to the public. In January 1999, the remaining state-owned shares were sold. Ruhrgas increased its stake up to 32%, Gazprom kept its 30% stake, and Neste (later Fortum) got a 10% stake. Later that year, Itera (now part of Rosneft) Latvian branch acquired nearly 10% stake from the Baltic Republic Fund. In following years, Gazprom increased its stake up to 37%, E.ON up to 33.66%, and Fortum up to 17.7% by buying shares from private investors. In 2014, E.ON sold its stake to Fortum, which became the largest shareholder with 51.4% stake. In February 2016, it was announced that Fortum will sell its stake to Trilini Energy, a company controlled by the investment firm Infortar, the major shareholder of the shipping company Tallink. Later, Trilini also acquired 50.9% of the shares owned previously by Gazprom and 1.15% of the shares owned by minority shareholders. Since 2016, the sole owner of Eesti Gaas has been the investment company Infortar.

In 1998, all regional subsidiaries of Eesti Gaas were merged into the parent company. In December 2004, the gas infrastructure construction activities were transferred to the separate subsidiary, AS EG Ehitus. In 2005, the gas grid services (transmission and distribution) were transferred to the newly established subsidiary company EG Võrguteenus. In 2013, the distribution network was separated from EG Võrguteenus into a newly established subsidiary of Eesti Gaas, AS Gaasivõrgud. In 2014, to implement the EU third energy package EG Võrguteenus was separated from Eesti Gaas.