MND to take full control of Czech gas storage facility in Dambořice, pushing out Russia's Gazprom

Energy company MND, owned by businessman Karel Komárek, will take control of the entire gas storage facility operated by Moravia Gas Storage (MGS) in Dambořice in June. The Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom still held a stake in the facility. The company's general meeting approved the Russian firm's removal last week. The news was reported by E15.cz.

Gazprom held a 50 percent stake in Moravia Gas Storage as recently as last year; it now had just three percent remaining. According to the news site, the Russian company could vote on the proposal to transfer the shares, but the minutes of the general meeting say it submitted an invalid ballot. „This shareholder's statement is considered invalid, and it is therefore deemed that shareholder Gazprom Export did not express its position,“ MGS board member Pavel Marek said in the minutes.

MND will pay more than ten million crowns for 50 shares in Moravia Gas Storage, and is expected to officially take them over on 25 June. Last year, the Czech company paid 36 million crowns to increase its stake from the original 50 percent to the current 97 percent.

„Both companies, Moravia Gas Storage in preparing for the general meeting and MND in exercising its shareholder rights, acted in accordance with the applicable legislation,“ said Dana Dvořáková, spokesperson for MND and the entire KKCG group owned by Komárek.

The underground gas storage facility in Dambořice, in the Hodonín region, was built by converting a depleted oil field that had been in production since 1986. Preparations for the storage project began in 2008, and MSG was established five years later as a joint venture between Gazprom Export and MND. Construction of the facility began in May 2014, and it was commissioned in July 2016.

Russia's Gazprom had leased most of the facility's capacity under a 15-year contract signed in 2013. The capacity is now used by other EU gas suppliers. The Russians stopped using the facility almost from the start of the war in Ukraine. Its capacity is 448 million cubic metres, or about 12 percent of gas storage capacity in the Czech Republic.

MND Group is part of businessman Karel Komárek's KKCG investment group. The company operates across various areas of the energy sector, from oil and gas production to generating energy from renewable sources, including geothermal wells and wind power. The company is also an energy supplier. In addition to the Czech Republic, MND Group also operates in Germany and Ukraine.