EnBW expands its gas business - company for gas midstream business established

Karlsruhe. EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG is expanding its gas business and has therefore established EnBW Gas Midstream GmbH. This new company is part of the strategic development of EnBW’s gas business towards midstream, i.e. towards direct access to the procurement market and to gas storage and trading. The new enterprise will also be responsible for the planning, construction and operation of gas tanks and pipelines and for investing in liquefaction and regasification plants. EnBW Gas Midstream GmbH will for example continue to develop the gas storage project in Etzel. The EnBW Board of Directors has appointed Michael Baumgärtner (43) as director of the new company. Baumgärtner will also continue to be responsible for the business area gas as a member of the EnBW Corporation’s divisional board.

As EnBW board member Pierre Lederer, responsible for the gas business explains: “In the medium to long term and across a broader value creation chain we want to become as competitive in this business area as we are today in electricity. Secure storage capacities and direct access to the procurement market are major preconditions for ensuring that we can continue to offer our gas customers attractive and structured gas offers in the future”.

With the strategic development of its gas business EnBW also wishes to achieve greater independence from pre-suppliers. By achieving greater flexibility on the gas market, EnBW aims to strengthen its competitive position and realise further growth in the future. Of major importance in this respect are its own storage capacities whose availability is therefore secure. In the Etzel region (Lower Saxony) EnBW enjoys usage rights to 2 salt caverns for underground gas storage, providing around 200 million cubic metres of storage capacity.

The expansion of the EnBW gas business model also opens up the possibility of EnBW being able to structure its own gas supply for combined-cycle plants in the future. A gas supply that is secure and calculable in the long term is essential to the reliable and economic running of such plants.