SOCAR confirms termination of DESFA deal
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has confirmed the information about the termination of the deal on the company’s acquiring a 66-percent stake in the Greek national gas transmission system operator DESFA.
Anar Mammadov, SOCAR executive director, confirmed the new while talking to Trend .
The Greek government announced about the termination of the Greek-SOCAR talks on DESFA on December 1.
SOCAR agreed to buy a 66 percent stake in the crisis-hit gas supply grid operator for €400 million in 2013. But the acquisition stalled after the energy giant of Azerbaijan faced EU concerns about a potential breach of its competition law. SOCAR 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.
Italian gas grid operator Snam was interested in buying the 17 percent DESFA stake that SOCAR has to sell to satisfy EU conditions.
The deal was further marred by more uncertainty when Greece passed a law, which raised DESFA's gas tariffs by a much lower amount than expected.
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