Hungarian oil company MOL has been given the green light from the European Commission to take over OMV Slovenija filling stations after committing to sell 39 stations in Slovenia to the British Shell Group.

MOL, currently the third largest fuel retailer in Slovenia, signed a €301 million deal to increase its stake in OMV Slovenija by 92.25% in 2021, having already had a 7.75% interest in the company before that.

The deal was to give MOL, which currently operates 53 filling stations in Slovenia, an additional 119 in the country. The market leader Petrol operates 318 stations.

The Commission had concerns that the transaction, as initially notified, would harm competition in the retail supply of motor fuels to individuals in Slovenia.

In response to the concerns, MOL offered to sell Shell 39 fuel stations in Slovenia that currently operate as part of its own and OMV Slovenija's networks.

"These commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission," Brussels said in announcing the clearance on 17 May.

"Feedback received from customers and competitors in the market test of the proposed commitments confirmed the Commission's view that the divested assets constitute a viable business that would enable the Shell Group to effectively compete with the merged entity," reads the release.

The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns. The decision is conditional on full compliance with the commitments.

"Following the remedies offered by MOL, consumers in Slovenia will continue to have access to fuel at competitive prices," said Margrethe Vestager, the Commission's executive vice-president who is in charge of competition policy.

The Shell Group, a large global group of energy and petrochemical companies, currently operates a network of nine stations in Slovenia, eight of which are dedicated to trucks. By taking over divested MOL stations it will become the third largest player on the market.

The Hungarian group announced its willingness to divest 39 service stations to have the takeover cleared in March, promising the move would not affect the customers or the employees.

They said the acquisition of the OMV network would strengthen competition on the Slovenian market, because it would allow them to better utilise MOL Group's entire production, logistic and processing facilities in the broader Central European region.

At the retail level, MOL Group has a network of around 2,000 filling stations in nine countries.