11 December 2003 11:20
Wingas and Norsk Hydro to form UK gas trading joint venture (Wingas grundet Gashandler mit Norsk Hydro)
Wingas, the German long-distance gas supplier, and Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian industrial conglomerate, which also
produces gas, are planning to form a joint venture for gas trading on the UK market, according to a source from Wingas.
Subject to approval by EU competition authorities, the new company, to be named Hydrowingas, is to begin trading next
year.
The UK is Europe's largest gas market, with annual consumption having reached 94.5 billion cubic metres in 2002.
Gas consumption in the UK is expected to grow by around 30 per cent in the period to 2010, and demand for imported gas
is expected to grow from the middle of the next decade. The country already depends on imports for part of its winter
gas supply. Wingas, a joint venture of the German-based oil and gas company Wintershall and the Russian gas giant
Gazprom, achieved a gas sales volume of 131 terawatt hours last year, placing it fifth on the German market.
Wintershall, in turn, is a subsidiary of the German chemicals giant BASF.
Original article by Olaf Preus
Abstracted from Financial Times Deutschland
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