Press Release: Competition: Commission secures improvements to gas supply contracts between OMV and Gazprom

In the light of improvements made to the gas supply contracts between Austrian oil and gas company OMV and Russian gas producer Gazprom to remove clauses that infringed EC Treaty rules on restrictive business practices (Article 81), the European Commission decided on 17 February 2005 to close its investigation. In particular, OMV would no longer be prevented from reselling, outside Austria, the gas it buys from Gazprom, and Gazprom would be free to sell to other customers in Austria without having to first offer the gas to OMV. OMV also agreed to contribute to increasing capacity on the pipeline that transports Russian gas, through Austria, to Italy, a similar outcome to the one reached with the Italian oil and gas company ENI in October 2003 (see IP/03/1345). The case demonstrated the European Commission's resolve to act against market partitioning agreements or any other potentially anti-competitive arrangements that hamper the true liberalisation of the energy sector.