BERLIN — European Union and German regulators carried out unannounced inspections at a number of corporations concerned within the provide, transmission and storage of pure gasoline, on suspicion of violating E.U. competitors laws, the authorities stated on Thursday.
Not one of the corporations focused within the raids, which happened on Tuesday, have been recognized, and each the European Fee, the chief arm of the bloc, and Germany’s antitrust regulator, the Bundeskartellamt, refused to remark additional.
Reuters and German media reported that two corporations subjected to the inspections have been Gazprom Germania and Wingas, each subsidiaries of Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gasoline provider. Neither firm responded to requests for remark.
The fee stated the shock raids have been a part of “a preliminary investigatory step into suspected anticompetitive practices.” If ample proof of wrongdoing is discovered, a proper investigation can proceed.
Earlier within the month, the fee singled out Gazprom for potential violations of market laws on competitors.
“The fee continues its investigation into the gasoline market in response to issues about potential distortions of competitors by operators, notably Gazprom,” it stated in a March 8 assertion that laid out its plans to diversify Europe’s sources of pure gasoline.
In 2018, the fee reached a settlement with Gazprom, after a long-running antitrust investigation into its dominance in regional gasoline markets throughout Europe. In contrast to competitors inquiries into corporations like Google and Intel, this one didn’t lead to a advantageous, upsetting criticism from officers in Poland who feared the deal didn’t go far sufficient to forestall comparable habits.
Final yr, Russia offered about 45 % of the European Union’s pure gasoline imports; in Germany, Russia’s share amounted to 55 %.
Along with Wingas and Gazprom Germania, Gazprom holds stakes in a number of different corporations that personal or function pure gasoline storage services and hundreds of miles of pipeline.
Europe’s largest underground tank for pure gasoline, in Rehden, Germany, is owned by Astora, one other subsidiary of Gazprom. However the quantity of gasoline that it holds on reserve had dropped to historic lows even earlier than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Final week, European Union leaders proposed requiring underground storage facilities to be at the very least 90 % full by Oct. 1 every year.
Gazprom can also be concerned in 4 long-distance pipelines, by joint ventures with the Germany-based Wintershall Dea, together with Nord Stream, which owns the unique pipeline carrying pure gasoline on to Germany from Russia underneath the Baltic Sea. A second, parallel pipeline that the Russians had rushed to finish final yr over vociferous objections from Washington, known as Nord Stream 2, was successfully frozen two days earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine.
