Czechoslovakia plans to create a joint stock company to run the Transgas pipeline system between the U.S.S.R. and western Europe as a first stage of privatization.
The Czechs also will seek a deal with the Soviets to pay transport fees for European gas exports in hard currency.
London banking firm N.M. Rothschild has been asked by the Warsaw government to create the new corporate structure. To be owned by the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, it will turn the Transgas operating company from a state enterprise into a private sector firm.
When the new structure is in place, European gas companies will be invited to buy a 20-25% stake in Transgas, which has a capacity of more than 7 bcfd and handles all Soviet gas exports to Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Yugoslavia.
In the past, the Czechoslovak government received transit fees from the U.S.S.R. in gas and nontransferable rubles. Czech purchases of Soviet gas have been reduced by the requirement to pay for supplies in hard currency. The aim of Transgas will be to put the relationship with the Soviet Union on a commercial footing with transit fees paid in hard currency.
Longer term, the company wants to expand capacity to 7.6 bcfd and link the line into the European network so it can buy and import gas from the North Sea and Algeria.
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