Gazprom subsidiaries in Europe are coming under pressure as customers and business partners refuse to do business with them.
Germany will temporarily take control of a Gazprom PJSC unit in the country to ensure security of gas supply.
Gazprom Germania GmbH – owner of energy utility Wingas GmbH and a gas storage company – will come under the trusteeship of Germany’s energy regulator until September 30, Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters in Berlin. The Federal Network Agency is thus taking on the role of a shareholder and can take all the necessary measures to ensure security of supply, he said. Ultimately, the government will not take over the company.
Gazprom subsidiaries in Europe are coming under pressure as customers and business partners refuse to do business with them, raising the prospect that some will not survive. Gazprom Germania’s Astora unit operates Germany’s largest gas storage facility in Rehden, Lower Saxony, in northern Germany. The location is considered the key to Germany’s energy security.
“The federal government is doing what is necessary to ensure security of supply in Germany,” Habeck said in a statement on Monday. “This also means that we do not subject energy infrastructure in Germany to arbitrary decisions by the Kremlin.”
Gazprom said Friday it no longer owns its German subsidiary, which also has a trading arm in the UK and units from Switzerland to Singapore. The Russian gas giant has not announced the new owner, but official documents showed that the transaction involved an exit from Gazprom Export Business Services LLC, owner of Gazprom Germania. In return, a company called Joint Stock Company Palmary became a shareholder of Gazprom Export Business Services LLC.
It’s not clear who the ultimate beneficial owner of Palmary is: it was registered at a Moscow address in October, and as of March 30, its general director was Dmitry Tseplyaev, according to the Russian Commercial Register.
Habeck said the Russian gas giant left the German subsidiary without obtaining government approval, in violation of Germany’s foreign trade law.
It is unclear what will happen after September 30 and what impact it will have on Gazprom Germania’s subsidiaries from the UK to Singapore. The German entity also owns a London-based trading arm and Gazprom Energy, a retailer that the UK government plans to nationalize if it fails.
(Updates with background information on British units in the last paragraph.)
–With the support of Birgit Jennen and Carla Canivete.