The seed of company was planted on December 15, 1864, when Riga businessmen Mr. William Weir & Comp signed a concession agreement with the city of Reval (Tallinn), the capital of Estonia, for the construction and operation of a gas factory and water line in the city. The agreement was approved by His Imperial Majesty Alexander II. In 1865, the first gas factory in Tallinn was completed, where the production of artificial gas from English coal began, which was initially used for street lighting. On December 17, the first gas lantern was lit on Tallinn Town Hall Square. In 1948, the first gas transport company in Estonia was established From 1948–1957 it transported Estonian
oil shale gas through the
Kohtla-Järve –
Leningrad pipeline to
Leningrad, Later the pipeline was used in traverse mode to transport Russian natural gas to Estonia. From 1963–1988, the company existed as the "General Administration of Gasification" under the Council of Ministers of the
Estonian SSR. In 1988, the name 'Eesti Gaas' was first introduced, and in 1990, it became a
state enterprise. In 1993, AS Eesti Gaas was incorporated. The company was partly privatized in 1993–1995. In 1993, a 30% stake in Eesti Gaas was transferred to Lentransgaz (now: Gazprom Transgaz Saint Petersburg), a subsidiary of
Gazprom, to eliminate the gas debt dispute. In 1994,
Ruhrgas (later: E.ON Ruhrgas) acquired about 15% of the company's shares while the management of the company, together with other private investors and the UK-based Baltic Republic Fund, acquired 7.5% of shares both. As a result, the government of Estonia kept a 39% stake. In 2014, E.ON sold its stake to Fortum, which became the largest shareholder with 51.4% stake. In February 2016, it was announced that Fortum will sell its stake to Trilini Energy, a company controlled by the investment firm Infortar, the major shareholder of the shipping company
Tallink. Later, Trilini also acquired 50.9% of the shares owned previously by Gazprom and 1.15% of the shares owned by minority shareholders. Since 2016, the sole owner of Eesti Gaas has been the investment company Infortar. In 1998, all regional subsidiaries of Eesti Gaas were merged into the parent company. In December 2004, the gas infrastructure construction activities were transferred to the separate subsidiary, AS EG Ehitus. In 2005, the gas grid services (transmission and distribution) were transferred to the newly established subsidiary company EG Võrguteenus. In 2013, the distribution network was separated from EG Võrguteenus into a newly established subsidiary of Eesti Gaas, AS Gaasivõrgud. In 2014, to implement the EU third energy package EG Võrguteenus was separated from Eesti Gaas. In 2013, Eesti Gaas started to sell electricity. In January 2018, Eesti Gaas started supplying
liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the Tallink's ferry
Megastar. In October 2018, Eesti Gaas announced that it will order 6,000-cubic-metre
LNG barge for
bunkering of ships in the northern and eastern part of the
Baltic Sea. The barge would be ready by 2020, and it will be built by
Damen Group. In 2019, Eesti Gaas entered the Lithuanian and Finnish energy markets under the Elenger brand. In 2021, the LNG bunker vessel Optimus was launched. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the company made a full-scale LNG turnaround, creating new gas supply chains from the West. It also started sales operations in Poland. In 2023, the Latvian gas distribution network company Gaso was acquired. The shares of the owner company Infortar were listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn stock exchange. In 2024, the first gas storage capacity was purchased in Germany. The construction of the first solar park in Latvia was completed. The business operations of EWE AG in Poland were acquired. In December, the company changed its name in Estonia, from Eesti Gaas to Elenger. ==Operations==