Azernews.Az

By Gunay Camal

Italian operator Snam seeks to be a part of privatization of the Greek national gas transmission system operator DESFA, but only if Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR stays in the arrangement offering 66 percent of the operator, Energypress, Greek energy news portal reported referring to sources close to the issue.

The sources say that a Snam representative, who met with Greek energy ministry officials on August 20, reiterated the Italian operator’s stance, noting the operator has signed a preliminary agreement with SOCAR for the acquisition of between 17 and 25 percent of DESFA and intends to honor this commitment.

SOCAR won a tender in 2013 on the purchase of a 66-percent stake in DESFA for 400 million euros ($446.3 million) but the acquisition was stalled, when SOCAR faced EU’s anti-trust concerns and was ordered to sell 17 percent of DESFA to a third party, so that its stake drops to 49 percent and satisfy EU competition authorities.

Earlier, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said that the deal on SOCAR's purchasing the 66-percent share in Greece's DESFA will be completed after Italy's Snam purchases 17 percent of that share.

In July 2016, Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Panos Skourletis accused the European Commission of delaying the deal on selling a share in Greece's DESFA to SOCAR. Skourletis said that a number of conditions, set by the European Commission, greatly slowed the privatization process of the gas operator.

In particular, the company will become a passive shareholder, not entitled to vote in the management of the company, as a result of decreasing SOCAR’s share in DESFA up to 49 percent.

SOCAR hopes it can overcome the EU obstacles, as Italy’s Snam SpA may purchase at least required 17 percent of shares.

Sale of DESFA is part of a privatization programme required under Greece's three international bailouts since 2010.

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