Brazil: CADE accuses 11 LN gas companies of collusion

Brazil’s antitrust authorities have launched an investigation on 11 companies in the liquified natural gas (LPG) sector, which the regulator has accused of conspiring to fix prices of this fuel and to divide their customer base among the country’s northeast states. The agency has said the companies have exchanged important information and set restrictions on their distributors in order to “promote an artificial market regulation and to ease the functioning of various alleged cartels.”

Among the companies under investigation are Liquigás Distribuidora, owned by oil giant Petrobras; along with Cia Ultragaz SA, part of PUltrapar Participações. Petrobras launched a process to begin the sale of Liquigás earlier this year.

The investigation is part of authorities’ effort to combat corruption in Brazil’s institutions. This wave is personified by the scandals, involving bribery and contract bidding manipulation between state firms and several engineering companies, and which helped to bring about a political trial against president Dilma Rousseff.

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