Gasum

History

The first natural gas pipeline from the Soviet Union to Finland was opened in 1974. From 1974 to 1994, Neste Oy was responsible for the import, transmission services, and wholesale of natural gas in Finland. Gasum was established in 1994 as a joint venture between Neste (75%) and Gazprom (25%).

After the merger of Neste and Imatran Voima in 1998, the newly created company Fortum had to reduce its stake in Gasum to 25%. As a result, the government of Finland (24%), E.ON (20%) and Finnish forest companies (6%) became new shareholders. In 2004, Fortum acquired the 6% stake from the forest companies. In 2015, Fortum and E.ON sold their stake to the Finnish government. In 2016, Gazprom sold its stake to the Finnish government which became the sole shareholder of the company.

In 2014, Gasum acquired 51% of Skangas from Lyse Energi and increased its ownership to 100% in 2018. Skangas started their LNG business in 2011. In 2018, Gasum built Finland's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the oil and chemical harbor of the port of Tahkoluoto in Pori.

Gasum expanded into the Swedish market in 2016 by acquiring Swedish Biogas International. After the deal, Gasum became the largest biogas producer in the Nordic countries. In April 2020, Gasum acquired Linde AG's LNG and biogas business in Sweden and Norway and Nauticor's marine bunkering business in Germany. The LNG terminals in Nynäshamn in Sweden and the bunkering vessels Seagas and Kairos, were transferred to Gasum.

Gasum planned to build a subsea gas pipeline Balticconnector to connect Finland with the Estonian gas system and further with a gas storage in Latvia. In October 2015, Gasum abandoned the project due to commercial viability. It was replaced in the project by the Finnish state-owned company Baltic Connector Oy.