The competition Authority has issued a resolution to extend by four months its investigation of a joint venture to build and use the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

In December, Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) received an application for permission for six companies to form a joint venture called Nord Stream 2 AG, to be headquartered in Switzerland. The six companies include Russia’s PAO Gazprom, E.ON Global Commodities SE of Germany, ENGIE SA of France, OMV Nord Stream II Holding AG of Switzerland, Shell Exploration and Production (LXXI) B.V. of the Netherlands, and Wintershall Nederland B.V., also of the Netherlands. A concentration application has also been filed with Germany’s competition office.

Nord Stream 2 AG would design, finance, construct and use two parallel subsea pipelines to transport natural gas from Russia’s Baltic coast to a point close to Greifswald, Germany.

In the concentration application, Gazprom presented data showing it already commands a dominant position on Poland’s natural gas supply market. The proposed joint venture would significantly strengthen Gazprom’s transmission capacity in Europe, and thus also its market and negotiating position in relation to Polish customers. That is why UOKiK has elected to extend the proceeding, giving itself time to more thoroughly research how the transaction would affect the Polish gas market, as well as consider the opinions of the market participants and gas market regulator. This will allow the Authority to establish exactly Gazprom’s position and its possible behaviour with regard to other enterprises on the market.

According to Poland’s amended Competition and Consumer Protection Act, UOKiK may extend a proceeding by four months to issue a decision in a range of cases, including ones that are particularly complicated, that require additional market research, or that concern concentrations that pose a justifiable likelihood of competition being significantly limited.

The resolution to extend a proceeding does not have any bearing on the ultimate decision in a case.

Additional information for the media:

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