Last Update: 2:19 PM ET Jan 23, 2007
ROME (MarketWatch) — Italy’s antitrust watchdog Tuesday said it has started a probe into possible price-fixing by nine oil companies, including Eni SpA (E) and the Italian units of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), Total SA (TOT) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM).
The regulator said the nine companies could have taken part since the end of 2004 in sharing information for the setting of gasoline prices in Italy’s service station network, limiting competition and keeping prices at the pump at one of the highest levels in the European Union.
The Italian antitrust regulator said in a statement that the other companies investigated are Italy’s Erg SpA (ERG.MI), Kuwait Petroleum Italia SpA, Tamoil SpA, and Italian companies Ip and Anonima Petroli Italiana SpA.
Eni declined to comment, and nobody was available to comment at Erg.
The regulator said Italy’s gasoline retail network has entry barriers, limiting newcomers. It concluded that this results in prices at the pump being “higher than abroad.”
The Rome-based regulator said Eni may have acted as a “price-leader,” with the other eight oil companies following suit.
Eni, which is Italy’s biggest oil company by revenue, changed the methodology it uses for calculating its prices in October 2004, and its prices are now less tied to the price of crude than before.
The antitrust regulator said it will conclude its probe by March 31, 2008.
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
