The story
In Belgium, the purchase, sale, storage, transmission of natural gas and LNG-terminalling activities were historically handled by Distrigaz, a company founded in 1929. In March 2001, the European Commission published a proposal to accelerate the opening up of the internal gas market. On 16 July 2001, the Belgian Federal Parliament approved several amendments to the Gas Act of 29 April 1999.
On 30 November 2001, the partial demerger of Distrigas led to the creation of Fluxys. At the time, Fluxys' shares were held by Belgian Shell, Tractebel (a subsidiary of Suez), Fluxhold and Publigaz (a holding company owned by Belgian municipalities), while 16.71% of the shares were listed on the Euronext Brussels Regulated Market. The Belgian State held a specific share, known as a "golden share".
Suez held as much as 57.25% of Fluxys shares prior to its 2008 merger with Gaz de France to form GDF Suez (now Engie), but was obligated to reduce its stake to satisfy the concerns of the European Commissioner for Competition. Engie still retained 44.75% of Fluxys as of July 2008.
In 2010, 89.97% of the shares were held by Publigas, while the remainder (10.03%) were traded on the secondary market of Euronext Brussels. That same year, the group's structure was revised to take into account the latest developments in Belgian legislation, following the Third Energy Package of legislative measures regarding the independence of network operators from natural gas suppliers.
In March 2011, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) acquired a 10% stake in Fluxys G, the parent company of Fluxys, through a €150 million capital increase.
On 8 May 2012, Fluxys changed its name to Fluxys Belgium. Regulated by law, Fluxys Belgium is a natural monopoly; it is solely responsible for managing the Belgian gas infrastructure. The government has appointed the Commission for the regulation of Electricity and Gas as the regulator for setting tariffs. The parent company Fluxys G was renamed Fluxys.
At the end of 2012, Fluxys carried out a capital increase of more than €140 million. The Federal Participation and Investment Company (SFPIM) acquired a stake of approximately 2% in the company.
Since the early 2000s, the Fluxys group has been present in several countries with holdings including:
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In the United Kingdom: Interconnector pipeline in 2004 and GMSL company in 2002
In the Netherlands: BBL pipeline in 2006
In France: Dunkerque LNG regasification terminal in 2011
In Switzerland: FluxSwiss company in 2011
In Germany: NEL and TENP pipelines in 2011, EUGAL in 2017, and OAL in 2024, OGE company in 2023
In Albania: TAP pipeline in 2013
In Greece: DESFA company in 2018 and TAP pipeline in 2013
In Portugal: Fluxys Byte It ICT service center in 2024.
Since the 2020s, the group has become active with holdings in Brazil (TBG pipeline in 2021), Chile (Quintero LNG regasification terminal in 2022), and Oman (OQGN company in 2023). At the end of 2022, Energy Infrastructure Partners, AG Insurance, Ethias and the Société Fédérale de Participations et d'Investissement have acquired CDPQ's shares in Fluxys.
From Wikipedia’s article on Fluxys, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5