Brussels, 20/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is preparing to communicate its statement of objections to the Russian energy giant Gazprom this Wednesday, according to the Financial Times and Bloomberg.
The Commission's investigation, which opened in September 2012, aims to determine whether the Russian giant has abused its dominant position. The investigation will look into three types of practices: - Gazprom is suspected of having segmented the gas market by preventing the free movement of gas between the various member states by means of certain restrictive clauses in long-term contracts with its clients (e.g. export restrictions); - the gas giant may have opposed the diversification of gas supply, again by laying down conditions in its contracts on the use of infrastructure; - the Russian company may have imposed artificially high prices on its clients, by indexing gas prices on oil prices (see EUROPE 10682). (Elodie Lamer)