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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polish oil refiner PKN
Orlen’s bid for rival Lotos may reduce competition in Poland and neighboring
countries and push up prices, EU antitrust regulators said as they opened a
full-scale investigation, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
State-run
PKN wants to buy at least a 53% of Lotos, in which the government holds a 53.19%
stake. The companies own the only two refineries in Poland and are also present
in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.
The
European Commission said the deal may lead to higher prices and curb
competition, confirming a Reuters report on July 4.
In the wholesale
supply of fuels, the combined company would be a quasi-monopoly facing limited
competition from imports, the EU antitrust enforcer said.
It said in the
retail market, the merged company would be four times bigger than the next rival
while airports would have only one jet fuel supplier.
The deal would also
eliminate the only competitor to PKN in bitumen supply in the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. The combined company would have a
dominant share of the provision of mandatory storage facilities in
Poland.
The Commission also expressed concerns about downstream rivals
being shut out of the market because of the volumes of fuels held by both
companies. It set a Dec. 13 deadline for its decision.
Rival BP, with 550
petrol stations in Poland versus PKN’s 1,783 and Lotos’ 493, has criticised the
deal. |
