Competition Protection Commission (CPC) fined Luxembourg-based company Melrose Resources SARL 70 000 leva over the acquisition of a gas deposit site in Bulgaria without prior authorisation by the anti-trust body, CPC was quoted as saying on October 24 by mediapool.bg.

In 2006, Melrose acquired all the equity of Vintage Petroleum Bulgaria Inc. and thus obtained full control over the Bulgarian company, which owned 100 per cent of the rights to explore and extract oil and natural gas in the Dulboko More area of the Black Sea shelf, near Bourgas. The acquisition took place without written consent by the CPC. According to the law, Melrose should have notified the commission and asked for permission for the deal. Such permits were obligatory for acquisition deals in Bulgaria, where companies with more than 15 million leva annual turnover were involved.

The deal represented a concentration, according to Article 21 of the Competition Protection Act, and therefore needed assessment and approval by CPC. Melrose did not take any steps to notify the authorities, which led to the fine imposed.

Melrose had been extracting natural gas from the site called Galata, near Varna, and had the rights to explore and extract at three other sites – Rezovska, Izgrev and Obzor – all of them in Bulgaria’s Black Sea shelf. For the last three sites however, Melrose ceased the drilling this summer after a series of unsuccessful attempts to find gas.