In 1865, the first gas refinery was completed in Talllinn, which used British coal to produce artificial gas. Most of the gas was used for street lamps. The first gas lantern was lit festively on the Town Hall Square in the Christmas period of the same year. Gas was supplied through pipelines to Balti Manufaktuur, the plywood factory and the Kadriorg palace and park.
In 1880 gas refinery was opened in Tartu as well. It used the same technology and had the same productivity as the Tallinn Gas Refinery – 0,8 million cubic meters of gas a year. The Tartu factory was closed down in 1976 following the setting up of the Irboska-Tartu gas pipeline.
On August 9, 1948, the first gas transportation company on the territory of Estonia was founded, which had a long and rambling name – Kohtla-Järve – Leningradi Gaasitorustiku Ekspluatatsioonivalitsus (Exploitation Administration of the Kohtla-Järve – Leningrad Gas Pipeline) – and can be considered the forefather of today’s Eesti Gaas. The same year also saw the opening of the Kohtla-Järve oil shale processing factory that started to produce oil shale gas for Leningrad. It took two years to build the factory. In 1949, the construction of the Kohtla-Järve – Leningrad pipeline was finished by which the city was supplied with gas.
In 1953, the first high pressure gas pipeline between Kohtla-Järve and Tallinn was built. Also, the Tallinngaas group was founded in the same year. Only within some years the gas consumption in Tallinn increased by about twenty times, reaching up to 65 million cubic meters in 1955. Among the first to be supplied by gas were the Liviko plant on Mere Boulevard and the sauna on Raua Street.
In 1957, Leningrad lost interest in the artificial gas produced in Kohtla-Järve, because Leningrad started using natural gas from Stavropol. The Kohtla-Järve factory started to produce gas for local consumption and to be used in Estonia on a wider scale.
On January 19, 1963, the Central Directorate for Gas Usage under the Council of Minister of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was established and became the governing body for Tallinngaas, the Tartu Refinery, and the gas plants of Narva and Kohtla-Järve municipal enterprises.
The same year saw the launch of yet another gas pipeline, Kohtla-Järve – Tallinn, due to increased consumer demand.
In 1969, the Leningrad – Kohtla-Järve pipeline began to be used for transporting natural gas to Estonia, which would be mixed with the oil shale gas in Jõhvi. Tallinn, Rakvere and Kiviõli started to use the new gas blend. The question of creating a single system based on natural gas arose. The building of Irboska-Tartu-Rakvere gas pipeline was included in the five-year plan of 1970-1975.
In 1976, the Irboska-Tartu –Rakvere gas pipeline was completed but there was still shortage of gas.
In 1979, 798 million cubic meters of natural gas and 273 million cubic meters of oil shale gas was used in Estonia but there was demand for more gas. Therefore, plan to build Vireš-Tallinn gas pipeline with a compressor station in Vireš, Latvia, started to take shape.
In 1988, the Central Directorate for Gas Usage was reorganiszed into the territorial production group Eesti Gaas. Aarne Saar was elected to be the General Director of ETTK Eesti Gaas.
In the same year, on March 29, the Vireš-Tallinn gas pipeline building started, which would enable to receive gas from the underground storage in Inčukalns, Latvia.
On November 1, 1990, Eesti Gaas – the first Estonian state enterprise was born. But the reforms went on, The establishment of the public limited company and search for partners started.
According to Regulation No. 133 of the Government of Estonia, passed on April 28, 1992, the state-owned enterprise Eesti Gaas was supposed to become a public limited company with foreign capital, whereas 70 percent of the shares would belong to the Estonian state and 30 percent to the Russian company Gazprom.
On January 5, 1993, the Foundation Agreement of the public limited company Eesti Gaas was signed. On November 29, the General Meeting of the shareholders of Eesti Gaas decided to increase the share capital from 22 million kroons to 38,8 million kroons.
In the same year, the Loo gas distribution station and Värska gas metering station on the Estonian-Russian border were designed.
In April 1994, the public bidding of the shares of Eesti Gaas began, which was arranged by Hansa Investments. 770 shares with a nominal value of 1000 kroons were issued. Every citizen had the right to buy the shares of Eesti Gaas up to 50 000 kroons. In May the second share issue was arranged – 835 shares were issued. As a result of these two share issues 7,5 percent of the share capital of Eesti Gaas went to private investors.
In the summer of 1994, the Loo gas distribution station was opened and started to supply natural gas to both the City of Tallinn and the Iru Power Plant.
In 1995, the search for strategic partners continued. In May, 14,67 percent of the shares of Eesti Gaas were sold to the German group Ruhrgas for 62,5 million kroons. Ruhrgas paid 11 times more for each 1000 share . 7,5 percent of the shares were sold, at the same price, to the London-based Baltic Republic Fund. The state of Estonia still owned 39 percent of the shares of Eesti Gaas.
In 1995, a long-term local heating program was launched in the framework of which several hundred consumers were transferred to natural gas.
In November 1996, the towns of Viljandi and Kohila started to consume natural gas. Gas reached also the biggest consumer in Kehra, the cellulose and paper manufacturer AS Horizon.
The Loo gas distribution station received two extra metering lines.
In November 1997, the Karksi gas metering station near the Estonian-Russian border was opened. The gas metering station conducts quality analysis and quantity metering for the natural gas volumes received from Latvia.
On January 28, 1998, AS Grüne Fee near Tartu opened a natural gas fired local heat and power cogeneration station , which was the first of its kind in Estonia.
On May 20, Neste OY, which soon became Fortum OY after a name change and restructuring, became a shareholder of Eesti Gaas.
In the same year, the restructuring of Eesti Gaas began: the merging of subsidiaries. As a result of internal reforms, Tallinngaas, Narva Gaas and Kohtla Gaas were terminated. In the next year the internal reforms were completed and former subsidiaries Tartu Gaas and Rakvere Gaas were merged with their parent company.
On March 4, 1999, Itera Latvija became shareholder of Eesti Gaas.
In September, the Kunda gas distribution station was launched and the heat and power cogeneration station of AS Kunda Nordic Tsement could start operation.
In May 2000, the natural gas based heat producing center of Narva Kreenholm was opened. In the same year, natural gas also reached the consumers in Narva-Jõesuu and Saue.
In 2001, the net turnover of Eesti Gaas surpassed the billion threshold and amounted to 1005 million kroons. The sale of natural gas reached 810 million cubic meters.
In 2002, the equity capital of Eesti Gaas in the amount of 155,2 million kroons, is divided as follows: OAO Gazprom 37 percent, Ruhrgas AG 32, Fortum OY 18, Itera Latvija 9 and private individuals 4 percent.
In August, the gas reached the Port of Muuga.
The year of 2003 was a year of anniversaries for Eesti Gaas – 10 years from the foundation of the public limited company, 15 years of the business name Eesti Gaas and 55 years of the pipeline transportation of gas on the territory of Estonia.
On May 1, 2004, Estonia became member of the European Union and the daily activities of Eesti Gaas became to be influenced also by the European directives.
In the same year the Narva, Vändra and Raudalu city gate stations were constructed.
During the year 2005 Eesti Gaas was reorganised into a group, comprising of the subsidiaries AS EG Ehitus, AS KV Partnerid and AS EG Võrguteenus, which began its economic activities on January 1, 2006. |