Brussels, 28/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 September, the European Commission undertook unannounced inspections at the premises of companies active in the natural gas industry in ten member states, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. These inspections particularly target the giant gas provider Gazprom, which also confirmed to the press that its premises had been subject to inspections in several countries, such as Germany and the Czech Republic. According to a European source quoted by AFP, Gazprom is being targeted by the Commission which suspects the company of market partitioning, territorial restrictions and practices that breach EU competition rules.
In a press release published on Tuesday, the Commission was keen to indicate that it is “investigating potential anticompetitive practices in the supply of natural gas in Central and Eastern European member states”. The companies are involved in “the supply, transmission and storage of natural gas in several member states” and the Commission has concerns that the companies may have engaged in “anticompetitive practices in breach of EU antitrust rules or that they are in possession of information relating to such practices”.
The Commission suspects “exclusionary behaviour, such as market partitioning, obstacles to network access, barriers to supply diversification, as well as possible exploitative behaviour, such as excessive pricing”. The Commission is focusing on the upstream supply sector where competition is likely to be hindered and delayed, unilaterally or due to these agreements.
On Tuesday, the German energy groups RWE and EON, OMV from Austria, PGNiG from Poland and the Lithuanian company Lietuvos Dujos (37.1% owned by Gazprom) acknowledged that they had been subject to inspections. According to Reuters, the publicly owned Bulgarian companies Bulgargaz and Bulgartransgaz, as well as their private sector competitor Overgas (50% owned by Gazprom) had been subject to surprise inspections on Wednesday.
Interviewed about the impact of these inspections on EU-Russian relations, the Commission spokesperson refused to make any comment other than to point out that surprise inspections were a preliminary stage when there were “suspicions” of uncompetitive practices and that they did not mean that the companies targeted were guilty of such practices. (OL/transl.fl)