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Spanish antitrust watchdog probes energy giant Repsol

Spain's antitrust watchdog said Tuesday it had opened a probe into oil giant Repsol over possible abuse of its dominant position in the country's fuel market.

Published: 26 December 2023 13:00 CET
US-ENERGY-OIL-CLIMATE
Josu Jon Imaz, CEO of Repsol, pauses while speaking during CERAWeek, an international energy conference, in Houston, Texas, on March 6th, 2023. Photo by Mark Felix / AFP

Repsol may have offered additional discounts at its petrol stations between March and December 2022 while raising wholesale prices for rivals such as independent petrol stations, the CNMC, as the watchdog is known, said in a statement.

This practice “would have had the ability to erode the commercial margins of those competitors and limit competition in retail distribution,” it added.

The watchdog said it opened the probe against Spain’s second-biggest oil company after complaints were filed by two associations representing independent fuel station operators.

Repsol “categorically rejects” the accusations, a company spokesman said, adding the firm “scrupulously respects the rules of competition” in Spain.

The discounts were put in place “to help consumers” in the face of price increases caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he added.

The watchdog has already opened investigations into Cepsa, Spain’s second-largest oil company, and British energy giant BP on suspicion they carried out similar anticompetitive practices in the energy market.

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CRIME

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel’s crystal meth

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized 1,800 kilos of crystal meth that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country's "biggest-ever seizure" of the narcotic.

Published: 16 May 2024 17:07 CEST
Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel's crystal meth

Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.

“This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organised crime unit, told reporters.

“Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.

READ ALSO: What are the penalties for drug possession in Spain?

He did not give his name but indicated the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain then distributing them within Europe.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups whose influence remains strong despite the arrest of its founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his son.

Both have been extradited to and jailed in the United States.

During the operation, police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and cash.

But police believe it was a one-off trafficking operation and that “Mexican organisations are not permanently based” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.

“These organisations send a trusted person who carries out the operation in line with their interests” and once that is over, he goes back home, he explained.

The seized narcotics had been due to be shipped to central Europe.

Although Spain is one of the main drug gateways to Europe, seizures of synthetic narcotics are uncommon as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain’s Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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