RosUkrEnergo

RosUkrEnergo is a Swiss-registered venture company that transports natural gas from Turkmenistan to East European countries. 50 percent of the company is owned by Gazprom, through its daughter Swiss-registered ARosgas Holding A.G. and another 50 percent by Raiffeisen Investment AG through its Swiss-registered Centragas Holding A.G., acting on behalf of a consortium of Ukrainian businessmen (who have refused to name themselves) [ [http://www.democracy.ru/article.php?id=1057 Сомнительный посредник - Демократия.Ру ] ] [ [http://www.rusenergy.com/newssystem/opened/37/20060426/436603.htm Ярюкх Хгбеярмш Унгъебю Пнясйпщмепцн ] ] [ [http://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/weekly01.asp?id=3638 Emerging Markets Economic Briefings ] ] Dmitriy Firtash (45%) and Ivan Fursin (5%). [ [http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-241453.html UNIAN - Nemtsov: Russian part in RosUkrEnergo looks as improper as Ukrainian one ] ]

The company was created in 2004 to replace Eural Trans Gas. Until 2006 the company acted as a middleman between Turkmenistan and Ukraine. The company also sells Turkmenistan gas to Poland. Due to new agreement between Gazprom and Naftohaz Ukrainy, starting 2006 the company will supply all of Ukraine's natural gas imports from Russia and other Central Asian countries, in addition to Turkmenistan.

Owners and allegations of criminal connections

According to Ukrainian Prime-Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the company is controlled by a notorious Ukrainian-born Russian criminal boss Semyon Mogilevich [According to Timoshenko "we have no doubts whatsoever that the man named Mogilevich is behind the whole operation called RosUkrEnergo", see [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/6121508.stm The High Price of Gas] by BBC News ]

In April 2006, London-based corruption watchdog Global Witness published a report focusing on RosUkrEnergo and other transit companies that have acted as intermediaries between Turkmenistan, Russia and Ukraine. The report highlighted the many links in personnel between RosUkrEnergo and the previous intermediary Eural Trans Gas. According to the report, Israeli lawyer Zeev Gordon had registered Eural Trans Gas on behalf of Ukrainian businessman Dmitriy Firtash. [ [http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_get.php/296/its_a_gas_april_2006_lowres.pdf gas 020 ] ]

In late April 2006 "Izvestia" reported that the primary shareholders of RosUkrEnergo are Dmitri Firtash, owner of basketball club "BC Kiev", a former representative of Eural Trans Gas and owner of Ukrainian TV channels K-1 and K-2. The report stated that he owned 90% of CentraGas Holding, equalling 45% of RosUkrEnergo. The report stated that a further owner is another Ukrainian businessman Ivan Fursin, the primary shareholder of the film studio "Odessa" and an owner of Misto-bank. His stake was revealed to be 10% of CentraGas and therefore a 5% owner of RosUkrEnergo. [ [http://izvestia.ru/economic/article3092391/ Известия.Ру: Кто владеет украинским газом ] ] .

Profits

RosUkrEnergo reported a 2005 profit of $755 million and paid $735 million in dividends [http://www.rosukrenergo.ch/eng/pub/business.html ROSUKRENERGO - Business ] ] .

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

RosUkrEnergo profit for January-September 2007 is reported at $213 million [ [http://www.gazprom.ru/articles/article26995.shtml ОАО «Газпром» | Акционерам и инвесторам / Отчеты / Промежуточная финансовая отчетность 30.09.2007 ] ] .

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 [ [http://www.rosukrenergo.ch/eng/pub/business/financial_data.html ROSUKRENERGO - Business - Financial data ] ] . 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.

Management

(As of October 2007, [ [http://www.rosukrenergo.ch/eng/pub/company/management.html ROSUKRENERGO - Company - Management ] ] )

Board of Directors:
*Lars Haussmann (President of the Board of Directors)
*Hans Baumgartner

Executive Directors:
*Konstantin Chuychenko
*Dmitry Glebko

Coordination Committee:
*Representing Gazprom
**Valery Golubev
**Alexander Medvedev
**Stanislav Tsygankov
**Sergey Khomyakov
*Representing Centragas
**Dmitry Firtash
**David Brown - former director of British Gas
**Robert Shetler-Jones
**Hanno Schatzmann

References

ee also

*Russia-Ukraine gas dispute

External links

* [http://www.rosukrenergo.ch Official website]
* [http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/479/en/its_a_gas._funny_business_in_the_turkmen_ukraine_g Global Witness Report]
* [http://groupdf.com/centragas.asp Group DF - Centragas]