AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

GAS: ANTITRUST LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO POSSIBLE ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION BY ENI

IN THE INTERNATIONAL GAS TRANSPORT MARKET

Decision adopted in response to a report submitted by Gas Intensive, a consortium of 8 trade associations representing Italian companies who are large gas consumers.

In a meeting on 06^th March 2012, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato decided to launch an investigation to determine whether Eni, in violation of Europe's laws on competition, abused its dominant position in the Italian markets for international gas transport (via the TAG and Transitgas pipelines, the use of which is traded on the European spot markets), with consequences concentrated in the gas supply sector for industrial customers.

The decision, served during the course of inspections conducted today by Antitrust officials in the usual collaboration with the Market Protection Unit of the Guardia di Finanza (Italian Tax Police), was adopted in response to a report submitted by Gas Intensive, a consortium of 8 trade associations representing Italian companies who are large gas consumers. Gas Intensive, in its capacity as a group purchasing organization, negotiates the purchase of gas under better conditions than its individual member companies would be able to obtain on the market, and is the direct manager of the gas transport and storage activities involved.

In April 2011, according to Gas Intensive, Eni stopped hosting the auctions it had been organizing on a regular basis for years for the purpose of selling the transport capacity it purchased but had no plans to use for its own import activities on the Tenp/Transitgas and TAG pipelines. By doing so, Eni as the holder of the largest share of capacity rights for the TAG and Transitgas pipelines, restricted the transport capacity available for other importers (transporters and final users/industrial customers who rely on self-supply) against a substantial underutilization of the pipelines. This behavior took place at a time when the differential between Italian prices and the prevailing European hub prices (around 5€/MWh) was positive, being higher than the cost of transporting gas into Italy (about 2€/MWh), and at the same time when final users who consume large quantities of gas were first being assigned the new storage capacities provided for pursuant to Leg. Decree 130/2010. For Gas Intensive, the absence of the capacity auctions prevented the consortium of large industrial consumers from stocking up on "summer" gas at more affordable prices on foreign markets and exploiting the new storage opportunities offered by the new legal framework.

According to the Antitrust, if Eni's conduct was intended to obstruct independent forms of gas stockpiling in order to take advantage of the favorable differential between Italian and European prices, then it seems fit to worsen the competitive conditions in the market for industrial gas supply.

The investigation shall be concluded by 15^th March 2013

Rome, 08^th March 2012