Brussels, 07/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised the proposed takeover of UK oil and natural gas company Enterprise Oil Plc by Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell. In its preliminary assessment, the Commission concluded the operation would not create anti-competitive effects, including on the markets for the transport by pipeline of either crude oil or unprocessed natural gas from off-shore fields in the UK North Sea or for the processing in the UK of crude oil or natural gas markets. Given the limited overlaps and the presence of strong competitors on the production side, the Commission focused its market analysis on the infrastructure side and whether there would remain sufficient independent spare capacity available for field owners to continue developing new fields. The market investigation revealed that the overlap in the transportation and processing of crude oil in the UK North Sea was limited. The merged entity will only have an equity interest in a limited number of pipelines and in only one processing facility and will not be able to control the access to the necessary infrastructure and thereby foreclose third parties access to pipeline or processing capacity. The Commission's investigation revealed the same results regarding the markets for transport and processing of natural gas in the North Sea.