Gasunie was founded in 1963 as a public-private partnership of Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and the state of the Netherlands to sell and distribute natural gas from the then recently discovered gasfield in the province of Groningen. In 2005 the company was divided into a gas trading company and a gas transportation company which kept the name Gasunie. The latter owns and operates most of the Dutch gas transmission network as well as the former BEB pipeline network in Germany, and a major pipeline connecting The Netherlands with the United Kingdom called the BBL Pipeline. In 2005, the split of Gasunie took place through a buy out by the Dutch State of the shares held by Shell and ExxonMobil in the infrastructure part of Gasunie. Therefore, Gasunie is now 100% state owned. The Dutch Ministry of Finance represents the Government's shareholder interest. Ownership of GasTerra is divided the same way as Gasunie before 2005. At the end of October 2010, Gasunie became a 25% shareholder in the Rotterdam-based company Rotterdamse Cintra Maatschappij B.V. Cintra is exploring the possibilities for developing services for the transport of CO2 from emitter to storage operator in Rotterdam. Gasunie established Vertogas on 2 July 2009 for the purpose of issuing certificates which guarantee the origin and volume produced of green gas. In January 2011 Gasunie Zuidwending became operational. This is a new underground storage facility in Zuidwending, the north of the Netherlands. In 2007, Gasunie bought the BEB's transportation unit BEB Erdgas und Erdoel GmbH, a German natural gas pipelinenetwork operator, from Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil.
Operations
Gasunie is a shareholder of ICE Endex, a European gas spot and derivatives exchange. Gasunie owns 60% of the BBL Pipeline between the Netherlands and England. It also has 9% of shares in Nord Stream AG, the project company for the Nord Stream pipeline. Gasunie has agreed to have a 20% stake in NEL pipeline which will connect Nord Stream with the German gas system. Gasunie owns 42.5% of Gate Terminal, the first LNG import terminal in the Netherlands, on the Maasvlakte. Following successful cooperation with GTS, Gate was brought into operation on the planned date of 1 September 2011.
