BUDAPEST, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Gazprom said on Friday it planned to build a “pan-European” ethylene pipeline and had purchased its stake in Hungarian chemicals BorsodChem (BDCD.BU) through an Irish holding company partly for that purpose.
Mihail Rahimkulov, Budapest-based director of Panrusgaz and Gazprom’s chief representative in Hungary, said the pipeline was one of the main reasons Gazprom was interested in BorsodChem.
“One of the targets was the creation of a pan-European ethylene pipeline which would include Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and some other European countries,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Rahimkulov declined to provide further details about the cost or technical aspects of the pipeline, which he said involved various partners.
BorsodChem has been suspended from trading on the Budapest bourse for the past four days in anticipation that the company will divest itself of much or all of its holding in second chemicals TVK , a move seen as directed against Gazprom, whose stake BorsodChem has called an “unfriendly” act.
