SOCAR, Athens to mull DESFA’s privatization
By Fatma Babayeva
Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company SOCAR will discuss the issue of purchasing assets of Greece’s natural gas transmission system operator DESFA with the Greek government.
SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev announced about this in Baku on May 11.
The talks on this issue continue, he said, adding that the sides haven't yet specified how much share they intend to obtain there.
"The groundbreaking ceremony for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will be held in Greece on May 17 and we plan to hold a meeting there with [Greek] energy minister and discuss the DESFA issue," he said.
SOCAR won a tender in December 2013 on the sale of 66-percent share in DESFA for 400 million euros. However, in November 2014, the European Commission started an inquiry into the compliance of the deal on the acquisition of this stake with the EU’s regulations.
Previously, it was reported by the Greek media that SOCAR may reduce its stake in DESFA from 66 to 41 percent.
Earlier, Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Panos Skourletis said that SOCAR needs to sell 17 percent to a European company in order to complete the acquisition of 66 percent stake in DESFA.
However, due to the failure of selling 17 percent stake to European companies, SOCAR may increase the proposed stake to 25 percent by keeping 41 percent stake in DESFA, Greek media reported.
The privatization of DESFA is delayed due to the fact that the EC opposes to the transfer of a majority stake in gas operator to SOCAR. The European Commission does not want the control package of such a big Transmission System transferred to the hands of non-EU country, but remain under the Greek control.
Baku has earlier claimed that from Azerbaijan's perspective, there was no conflict of interest in acquiring a majority stake in DESFA as the gas owner to be pumped through the SGC was not Azerbaijan, but the Shah-Deniz Consortium.
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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva
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