Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas group, has bought a stake in a British smart meter supply company, hoping the energy efficiency product will make its supplies more attractive to UK customers. The Russian company, which yesterday ended another damaging stand-off with Ukraine over wholesale gas supplies, said the stake in TruRead would help it “differentiate” itself by offering innovative services, though it refused to disclose the size of the stake or its cost. “With rising public and regulatory concern about the need to reduce carbon emissions, this proprietary technology will enable multi-commodity consumers to be more energy efficient and to control their energy use more easily and cost effectively,” said Vitaly Vasiliev, chief executive of Gazprom Marketing & Trading. This is the first acquisition in Britain since the summer of 2006 when Gazprom bought a small Cheshire gas supply firm, Pennine Natural Gas, which has recruited 10,000 UK customers, including the steelmaker Sheffield Forgemasters. Gazprom says it expects to expand further although expectations that it would soon buy a major utility such as Centrica have faded. The British government is keen to encourage the use of smart meters to reduce carbon emissions. Wednesday’s budget statement included a commitment to introduce them in medium and large companies over the next five years, by providing greater incentives for businesses to reduce the energy they consume. Simon Slater, managing director of TruRead, said Gazprom’s involvement gave it the green light to develop its products and services further, in the UK and globally. In the longer term the government would like to see 45m gas and electricity meters replaced by smart equivalents, which can be read remotely by energy companies and allow users to monitor consumption.

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