Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI) said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with three other parties for the joint further development of the Central European Gas Hub and the establishment of a Central European gas exchange in Austria.
According to the intended deal, the three partner companies, Vienna Stock Exchange operator Wiener Boerse AG, Russia's Gazprom OAO (GAZP.RS) and Centrex Europe Energy & Gas AG, a 100% subsidiary of Gazprom, will each take a stake in the OMV unit that operates the gas hub at Baumgarten in northeastern Austria.
After closing of the transaction, Gazprom Germania GmbH and Centrex will hold stakes of 30% and 20%, respectively, bringing Gazprom's total stake in the hub operator to 50%. OMV Gas & Power GmbH will hold a 30% stake, while Wiener Boerse will have a 20% stake, OMV said.
The agreement is effectively an adjustment of a previous memorandum of understanding signed between OMV and Gazprom in 2007 for a 50-50 joint development of the Baumgarten gas hub, an OMV spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.
New in the agreement is the addition Wiener Bourse's exchange operation knowhow, and that OMV in order to make room for this addition will keep only a 30% stake in the hub operator, a spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.
The Baumgarten hub is among continental Europe's three largest hubs, with a traded gas volume of 17.7 billion cubic meters in 2007.
The agreement foresees the joint further development of the hub operator into "a leading hub platform in continental Europe," and the establishment of a gas exchange "providing for the trading of gas products on a spot and futures market," OMV said.
The transaction is expected to be finalized in 2009, OMV said.