E.ON’s natural gas business runs the length of the supply chain, just as it does with power. E.ON Ruhrgas E&P, for example, undertakes gas extraction from the North Sea, while E.ON Ruhrgas runs the divisions for international gas purchasing and sales for industrial customers. The gas transportation network stretches over 11,000 km, and is run by E.ON Gastransport. End customers buy their gas from the distribution companies of our market units, many of which also supply power.
Natural gas is primarily used by our customers for the generation of heat for room heating, industrial production and increasingly for power generation. Natural gas is a relatively new type of energy in Germany, but one that has achieved a share of almost twenty percent of overall primary energy consumption in just thirty years. Half of this amount is used primarily in households and commercial business, where the environmentally friendly aspects of natural gas use are most apparent. But gas use is growing in the industrial sector, as well.
