BRUSSELS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission handed down Wednesday fines totaling over 183 million euros on four companies for running an illegal cartel for bitumen in Spain.

    According to the commission, these companies shared the Spanish market for bitumen, a material used for road construction, and coordinated bitumen prices between 1991 and 2002.

    Spanish companies Repsol and Cepsa, which led the cartel, were hit with the heaviest fines of 80.5 million euros and nearly 83.9 million euros respectively. Nynas of Sweden was fined 10.6 million euros and Galp of Portugal 8.7 million euros.

    British energy giant BP, a fifth accomplice in the cartel, escaped a fine of 66 million euros because it blew the whistle in 2002 and triggered the commission's investigation.

    The European Union's antitrust watchdog found that from at least 1991 to 2002, the five companies established market quotas, allocated sales volumes and customers between them, manipulated market prices and monitored the implementation of the market sharing agreements by exchanging sensitive market information.

    It was revealed that discussions on market sharing and price variations were held around a so-called "asphalt table" where cartel members participated on a bilateral or multilateral basis. Meetings were held at hotels or the companies' premises.

    "It is unacceptable that these companies cheated customers, public authorities and tax payers in Spain for almost 12 years by carving up the market for road-building bitumen among them," the EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

    Bitumen is a by-product produced during the distillation of oil. It is mainly used for the production of asphalt, where it serves as an adhesive to bind stones together. The case concerns a market valued at 286 million euros in 2001.