British Gas was formerly the name of the United Kingdom's monopoly gas supplier. There is no longer a company called "British Gas", but the phrase is still used as a trading name. Until 1999 it was used by the privatised operator British Gas plc. After the demerger of British Gas plc ownership of the name was split: in Britain it is used by Centrica plc, while in the rest of the world it is used by BG Group plc.

A further demerger separated BG Group into Lattice and BG International. Lattice took ownership of Transco (the gas transporter for the UK), Advantica (Gas Software specialist) along with the property and transport companies and BG International took ownership of gas fields and other assets.

In 2003 Lattice merged with National Grid to become National Grid Transco , a single company that owns the gas pipes in the UK, electricity distribution in the England and Wales and various electricity distribution networks in the USA.

National Grid Transco also owns Fulcrum Connections, a gas connections company and Crown Castle UK (formerly a subsidiary of Crown Castle International), which owns two of the UK's Digital TV multiplexes.

In June 2005 NGT intend to sell some of Transco's 8 Networks retaining ownership of four of them. Announcements have been made on network sales with Scotland and Southern networks being sold to Scotia Gas Networks plc, a consortium owned by Scottish & Southern Energy, Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc, & Ontario Teachers Pension Plan; Wales & the West network being sold to Macquarie Investment Management (UK) Limited; North of England network being sold to Gas Network Limited, a consortium of United Utilities, Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited (CKI) and Li Ka Shing (Overseas) Foundation.

External links

• britishgas.co.uk - diagram of the demerger with links to demerged company websites
• National Grid Transco web site
• Fulcrum Connections web site