STATOIL and Conoco Ireland have lodged a High Court appeal against the order made by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, blocking Statoil's purchase of the Jet petrol station network.
The two companies are taking the case on a point of law the only option available to them under Section 12 of the Mergers, Takeovers, and Monopolies Act.
It is thought the appeal will take issue with the basis on which assumptions were made in the Competition Authority's report on the proposed takeover.
Statoil said the move followed careful consideration by both companies of the options available to them.
Statoil added that both companies wanted "an early hearing" of the appeal.
Mr Bruton made the order blocking the deal after a Competition Authority investigation found that the purchase of the Jet stations by Statoil could reduce competition and lead to increased prices.
The report said the current market appeared to be characterised by a strong degree of price competition. Jet had a reputation of being a low cost operator, while Statoil is a higher price operator.
The report said that Statoil was not going to alter its policy and the competition offered by Jet would simply disappear.
Statoil argued it needed to expand to enable it to be more competitive.
Under the deal, Statoil would have acquired Jet's 257 service stations in the Republic, boosting the Norwegian company's total number of Irish outlets to 440. The acquisition would have given Statoil just over 25 per cent of the £1 billion market. Esso has just under 25 per cent, while Texaco is estimated to have about 20 per cent.
The price that Statoil was to pay was never disclosed. However, it was understood to be in the region of £25-£30 million.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, yesterday made an order bringing forward the time for the start of the proceedings.
He abridged the time in which the sum mons had to be returned to Wednesday, March 12th, and ordered that the matter be returned to the High Court on Tuesday, March 19th.
Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for the companies, said they were anxious to challenge the Minister's prohibition order. The commercial realities of the situation made it a matter of the utmost urgency, he added. He was anxious to ask the court to truncate the proceedings, Mr Nesbitt said.
