Brussels, 06/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 23 August, after having referred review of the consequences of the project for a joint venture between Deutsche Shell and RWE-DEA back to the German competition authorities (see EUROPE of 25 August, p.5), the European Commission decided, on Thursday, to proceed in the same way regarding assessment of the impact that the proposed joint venture between Deutsche BP and E.ON would have on the upstream oil products market. The Bundeskartellamt has four months in which to take its final decision. At the same time, the European Executive considered that the effect of the operation on the petrochemical sector should be examined in more detail. It has opened an inquiry on this.
The meeting between the BP/E.ON petrochemical business on one hand and of Shell/DEA on the other gives rise to fear that a collective dominant position will be created, mainly on the market for the supply of ethylene via the "ARG" pipeline network that links different production sites, maritime terminals and ethylene consumers in Belgium, the Netherlands and western Germany. It is feared in Brussels that the operation will eliminate from the market the only ethylene producers not integrated upstream. The Commission also has four months in which to finalise a decision on these aspects of operation. EUROPE will come back to this in greater detail.