The European Commission's competition department has closed its probe into the alleged anti-competitive behaviour by BEB, a German joint venture of ExxonMobil and Shell

The investigation focused on BEB's refusal to grant Norwegian gas producer Marathon access to its Northern German pipeline network. In return for the closure BEB offered to further improve its access regime for gas pipelines and storage facilities, which will facilitate third parties to use BEB's network. BEB undertook in particular to abandon the transport system currently applied across Germany (including the area covered by BEB's network) and to replace it by a new user-friendly system for its network (so called entry/exit system). Commenting on the settlement, Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said : "The settlement of the Marathon case with BEB means a significant step forward for the German gas market, which currently is lagging behind in the liberalisation process. I welcome that BEB is willing to introduce an entry/exit system for its network, which better reflects physical gas flows and costs incurred when transporting gas. I can only encourage other German companies to follow BEB's example. In the medium term I would also hope that Germany develops into one large entry/exit zone covering all networks be they supra-regional, regional or local. The settlement shows that the Commission is fully committed to foster the liberalisation process by chasing anti-competitive behaviour."