RosUkrEnergo

RosUkrEnergo is a Swiss-registered venture company that transports natural gas from Turkmenistan to East European countries. 50% of the company is owned by Gazprom, through its subsidiary Swiss-registered Rosgas Holding A.G., and another 50% by Swiss-registered private company Centragas Holding A.G., acting on behalf of a consortium of GDF Group[1][2][3][4] owned by Dmytro Firtash and Ivan Fursin.[5]

Before the 2009 Russia–Ukraine gas dispute, it was the sole importer of natural gas from Gazprom, reselling it to Naftogaz Ukrainy. Critics have questioned Gazprom's claimed need for RUE as a middleman. RUE has been accused of simply being “a corrupt intermediary” but has dismissed suggestions that Russian or Ukrainian politicians benefit from the arrangement.[6]

History

The company was created in July 2004 in a deal by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to replace Eural Trans Gas.[7] Until 2006 the company acted as a middleman between Turkmenistan and Ukraine.[8] The company also sells Turkmenistan gas to Poland. Due to an agreement between Gazprom and Naftogaz, from 2006 till January 2009 the company supplied all of Ukraine's natural gas imports from Russia and other Central Asian countries, in addition to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.[9] On October 24, 2008 Gazprom and Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz signed a long-term cooperation deal in which was stated that Ukraine will receive Russian natural gas directly from Gazprom and Naftogaz will be the sole importer of Russian natural gas.[10]

Eural Trans Gas

Eural Trans Gas (ETG) was an energy company registered in Budapest, Hungary, on December 6, 2002. It was suspected of acting as a Gazprom front. Andras Knopp, a former Hungarian communist cultural functionary with no knowledge of the gas business, became director of the company.[20][21][22] The registered owner was Dmytro Firtash, an obscure Ukrainian national who reportedly had little if any known assets. Yet the person received almost $300 million in credits from Russian banks.[23]

ETG maintained an account at a Budapest branch of Vienna's Raiffeisen Bank International and had a number of accounts in Vienna's Meinl Bank.[23]

Owners and allegations of criminal connections

In April 2005, Oleksandr Turchynov, the head of Ukraine's SBU, explained to the Financial Times that Semion Mogilevich is associated with RosUkrEnergo after the SBU had collected a 20 volume file on Mogilevich over a twelve-year period.[24] In 2006, an ally of Tymoshenko stated in the Rada that Firtash's Switzerland registered RosUkrEnergo, which has been the dominant natural gas supplier to Ukraine since 2003 after it replaced the Hungarian registered Eural Trans Gas which had replaced Itera in December 2002, has Semion Mogilevich, who has many Russian mafia associates, as a silent partner.[25][26][27][28][29]

Profits

RosUkrEnergo reported a 2005 profit of $755 million and paid $735 million in dividends.[38]

The company's 2006 profit is listed at over $785 million.[38]

RosUkrEnergo profit for January–September 2007 is reported at $213 million.[39]

The company makes its profit on re-exporting gas to Europe. The size of the profit is defined by Gazprom through the export allowances of about 9 billion cubic meters a year.[40] RosUkrEnergo supplies gas to the Hungarian gas distributor Emfesz, for example, which is also controlled by Firtash via his holding company Group DF.

Effectively, by engaging in this supply scheme Gazprom transfers profits from its shareholders to the shareholders of RosUkrEnergo.

See also

• Russia-Ukraine gas dispute
• List of Gazprom subsidiaries

External links

• Official website
• Global Witness Report
• Group DF - Centragas