RosUkrEnergo

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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. as well. The owners of Centragas are Dmitriy Firtash (90%) and Ivan Fursin (10%). [1] [2]

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. The Financial Times alleged on July 27, 2005 that RosUkrEnergo was linked to Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma and to organized crime structures. [3] [4] [5]

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. [6]

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. [7].