European regulators carry out surprise raids on companies involved in natural gas.

BERLIN — European Union and German regulators carried out unannounced inspections at a number of corporations concerned within the provide, transmission and storage of pure fuel, on suspicion of violating E.U. competitors rules, the authorities stated on Thursday.

Not one of the corporations focused within the raids, which came about on Tuesday, had 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 had been Gazprom Germania GmbH and Wingas GmbH, each subsidiaries of Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned fuel provider. Neither firm responded to requests for remark.

The fee stated that the shock raids had been a part of “a preliminary investigatory step into suspected anticompetitive practices.” If enough proof of wrongdoing is discovered, a proper investigation can proceed.

Earlier this month, the fee singled out Gazprom for potential violations of market rules on competitors.

“The Fee continues its investigation into the fuel market in response to considerations 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 fuel.

In 2018, the fee reached a settlement with Gazprom, after a long-running antitrust investigation into its dominance in regional fuel markets throughout Europe. In contrast to with different competitors inquiries into corporations like Google and Intel, the fee didn’t tremendous Gazprom, scary criticism from officers in Poland who feared the deal didn’t go far sufficient to stop comparable conduct sooner or later.

Final 12 months Russia supplied about 45 % of the European Union’s pure fuel imports; in Germany, Russia’s share was even larger, amounting to 55 % of imported pure fuel.

Along with Wingas and Gazprom Germania, Gazprom holds stakes in a number of different corporations that personal or function pure fuel storage services and 1000’s of miles of pipeline.

Europe’s largest underground tank for pure fuel, in Rehden, Germany, is owned by Astora, one other subsidiary of Gazprom. However the quantity of fuel that it holds on reserve has dropped to historic lows, even earlier than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Final week, European Union leaders proposed requiring underground storage services to be at the least 90 % full by Oct. 1 of every 12 months.

Gazprom can be concerned in 4 long-distance pipelines, by way of joint ventures with the Germany-based Wintershall Dea, together with Nord Stream AG, which owns the unique pipeline carrying pure fuel on to Germany from Russia beneath the Baltic Sea. A second, parallel pipeline that the Russians had rushed to finish final 12 months over vociferous objections from Washington, referred to as the Nord Stream 2, was successfully frozen two days earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine.