DUBLIN

Bord Gáis Éireann - The Irish Gas Board, normally branded as Bord Gáis, is the main supplier and distributor of pipeline natural gas in the Republic of Ireland. The company is currently building an extensive network across the Republic. The company supplies gas to domestic and industrial customers on a fully regulated basis. The tariffs for customers are determined by the Commission for Energy Regulation.

Bord Gáis Éireann was established as a semi-state company by the Irish government in 1975 to replace a series of private sector small city-based gas companies, some of whom had got into financial trouble. The company was originally established as a private limited company by shares, Bord Gáis Éireann Teoranta, before being converted to a statutory corporation under the Gas Act 1976, the primary legislation under which BGE operates.

The oldest of the small private companies was the Alliance and Dublin Consumers' Gas Company, which had been founded in the early nineteenth century by Daniel O'Connell, a prominent Irish politician and Lord Mayor of Dublin. After initially supplying the company (known simply as Dublin Gas by the 1980s) with wholesale natural gas, Bord Gáis acquired the assets of the company when it went into receivership in 1987, including its head office in D'Olier Street, Dublin. 

Other town gas companies were acquired by Bord Gáis in Cork, Limerick, Clonmel, and Kilkenny. Bord Gáis is headquartered in Cork city, though it also has had a substantial presence in Dublin since the acquisition of the assets of Dublin Gas. In 2002 Bord Gáis sold the landmark Dublin Gas head office building in Dublin to Trinity College Dublin, and moved to purpose built premises in Foley Street which is now the main offices of Bord Gáis Energy.

For nearly two decades the main supply of gas available for Bord Gáis came from a Marathon Petroleum owned gasfield near Kinsale, off the Cork coast. This gas field had been found in 1971, the same year as the foundation of the Nuclear Energy Board. This gas field comes ashore at Inch in Co. Cork.

On 4 July 2008, an "arms-lenght" subsidary of Bord Gáis, Gaslink was established to perform the role of transmission and distribution system operator. For now, Bord Gáis Networks still exist and manages the network on behalf of Gaslink. It is planned however that many of its functions will transfer over to the new body 

On 18 February 2009, Bord Gáis Energy Supply rebranded as Bord Gáis Energy, with a new logo. It also entered the domestic electricty market on that date, having supplied electricity to business customers for some time.