Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

OAO Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly, faces a formal antitrust complaint from the European Union after a probe that became overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis. Here’s a timeline of Gazprom’s clash with the EU since 2011:

* Jan. 25, 2011: Lithuania asks the European Commission to investigate possible market abuse in the Baltic nation by Gazprom.

* Sept. 27, 2011: Gazprom, RWE AG, EON AG, OMV AG and Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA are raided by EU regulators looking for possible antitrust violations in central and eastern Europe.

* Sept. 29, 2011: Gazprom’s long-term natural-gas contracts are the focus of the EU probe, Bulgaria Energy Minister Traicho Traikov says.

* Sept. 5, 2012: The European Commission formally opens an antitrust case against Gazprom saying it’s investigating whether the company imposed unfair prices by linking natural-gas and oil prices, prevented gas from being traded between countries and hindered the diversification of supply.

* Sept. 11, 2012: The EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia says Gazprom’s long-term natural-gas supply contracts with gas prices linked to oil prices may no longer be justified because of the emergence of a spot market for gas and increased supplies of shale gas.

* Sept. 11, 2012: Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a decree giving the government the right to protect Gazprom from an EU antitrust inquiry. Putin’s measure bans strategic companies from disclosing information, disposing of assets or amending contracts without government approval in case claims are made by foreign states or entities.

* Feb. 6, 2013: The EU’s antitrust probe into Gazprom’s possible monopoly abuse hasn’t been hampered by the government decree, says Celine Gauer, head of the European Commission’s antitrust unit for the energy industry.

* August 2013: EU regulators are drafting a formal antitrust complaint against Gazprom threatening to escalate the probe, according to three people familiar with the probe.

* Dec. 2, 2013: Gazprom may be abusing its market power to set different prices across Europe and keep them with restrictive contracts, the EU’s antitrust chief says. “We suspect that Gazprom can use its market power to adopt a pricing policy that is out of line with market fundamentals,” Almunia says.

* Dec. 4, 2013: Gazprom tells the EU’s antitrust chief it will submit proposals to settle the EU probe and avert possible fines. “Gazprom expressed its willingness to explore the possibility of a commitment-based solution to the commission’s competition concerns,” Almunia says after meeting the company’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev.

* Dec. 13, 2013: Gazprom sends European Commission a settlement offer, according to a spokesman for the EU regulator.

* Jan. 15, 2014: “Plan A is to continue working on the statement of objections and, when it is ready, to adopt it,” Almunia says.

* Jan. 17, 2014: Almunia shrugs off Gazprom’s December offer to settle the case, saying he has not yet received concrete proposals.

* Jan. 24, 2014: Medvedev says Gazprom and the EU clashes over gas pricing in the previous day’s talks aimed at finding a settlement.

* March 18, 2014: European Commission’s Gauer says sending an antitrust complaint amid the Ukraine crisis would be misconstrued as an act of “aggression” toward Russia for its possible role in the Ukraine conflict.

* April 2014: Gazprom fails to submit an improved offer to settle the EU antitrust dispute as tensions escalate about Russia’s actions in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the case. The commission had expected Gazprom to send its proposal around mid-March, says one of the people.

* Sept. 19, 2014: Almunia says talks with Gazprom to settle antitrust case “were suspended because of the crisis in Ukraine.”

* Feb. 18, 2015: The European Union will soon move ahead with the case against Gazprom, Margrethe Vestager, the new competition commissioner, tells the Wall Street Journal. “I think we can move the case forward in a hopefully relatively short time-span,” she says.

* Feb. 25, 2015: EU Vice-President Maros Sefcovic says the bloc may present results of antitrust investigation into Gazprom in “a matter of weeks.”

* March 9, 2015: “It is very important to have a strong case” because “so many people want to politicize it,” Vestager tells Bloomberg.

* March 13, 2015: The European Commission questioned Gazprom’s clients before deciding whether to escalate an antitrust probe, say two people with knowledge of the matter. The regulator is seeking to gauge the effects of an oil-price slump on its case, says one of the people.

* April 22, 2015: Gazprom accused by the European Union of abusing its market power to raise gas prices. The company is given 12 weeks to respond to the so-called statement of objections.