THEAntitrust has launched an investigation against Eni. The suspicion is that the energy company has violated European competition rules by abusing its dominant position on the international gas transport markets in Italy (through the Tag and Transitgas pipelines, which allow the transport of gas purchased on European spot markets), with consequences mainly on the supply of gas to industrial customers. This morning at the opening in Piazza Affari, Eni's share still gained 0,34%.
The procedure was initiated after a notification from Gas Intensive, the consortium made up of eight trade associations representing large Italian companies that consume natural gas. "According to Gas Intensive - reads the note from the Authority -, starting from April 2011, Eni, for the first time in years, no longer organized auctions for the sale of the transportation capacity it held but which it did not plan to use for its imports on the Tenp/Transitgas and Tag pipelines".
In this way Eni, “which holds the majority share of the capacity rights on the TAG and Transitgas pipelines, has limited the availability of transportation capacity for other importers, in the face of a substantial underutilization of the pipelines. The behavior took place in the presence of a positive differential between Italian prices and prices prevailing on the European hubs (around 5€/MWh), higher than the costs necessary to transport that gas in Italy (around 2€/MWh), as well as precisely on the occasion of the first assignment to end users who are large gas consumers of the new storage capacity envisaged pursuant to the Legislative Decree 130/2010. For Gas Intensive, the failure to call the auctions for capacity therefore prevented the large industrial consumers in the consortium from getting supplies of "summer" gas on foreign markets at cheaper prices and from exploiting the new storage opportunities offered by the new regulatory framework".
According to the Antitrust, "Eni's conduct, if aimed at hindering forms of independent gas procurement aimed at exploiting the favorable conditions due to the differential between Italian and European prices, appears suitable for worsen the competitive conditions on the market for the supply of gas to industrial customers".
