Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Estonia, Gas, Latvia, Legislation

Itera Latvija is a subsidiary of Russian natural gas production and marketing companies group Itera, which is connected to Gazprom. Itera owns, among other things, shareholdings in Eesti Gaas and Latvijas Gaze.

Elering paid 5.4 million euros for the 10% stake that belonged to Itera.

Together with the shareholdings previously acquired from Fortum, Gazprom and minority shareholders, Elering owns 99.1% of Võrguteenus Valdus shares. Elering has acquired all of the shares at the same price, the company announced.

As the next step, Elering plans to acquire the less than 1% shareholding that belongs to small shareholders.

"Separating the ownership of the gas transmission network from gas traders and forming the joint system administrator is an important step towards the liberalisation of the Estonian gas market," said Elering board chairman Taavi Veskimägi. "The first nine months of separate gas transmission grid company Elering Gaas has already demonstrated the correctness of that decision."

Veskimäe said Elering aims to begin operating as an integrated electricity and gas system administration from the start of the next year.