Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 3
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
A long process of 66 percent stake acquisition by SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) in the Greek gas transport operator DESFA seems to be completed soon. This issue must be resolved within the next 2-3 months.
Anyway, Greek Energy Minister Panos Skourletis has recently spoken of this issue at a meeting with the Azerbaijani representatives. He assured that the transaction process is being held without any problems and will be completed in the coming months.
And anyone willingly believes given a number of concomitant factors. Thus, Skourletis said that the transaction process is underway to meet the requirements of the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition, which has been considering the transaction for a long time. In case of successful developments, it will remain there until the end of the year. Afterwards, a final decision will be taken.
Second, SOCAR's readiness to consider the further sale of a 66 percent share to one or several European companies may play a positive role in this process. Moreover, there are already several candidates, namely, Belgian Fluxys, Dutch Gasunie and Italian Infrastrutture Trasporto Gas and Snam Rete Gas.
At the same time, reports emerged that the Belgians have already appealed to SOCAR, expressing a desire to acquire up to eight percent of the shares, and it is possible that this issue was discussed with the state oil company during the visit of the Snam Rete Gas Executive Director Carlo Malacarne to Baku.
Such a situation may also encourage the European Commission to make a decision in favor of the state oil company.
In addition, Greece itself makes contribution to this business, which finally seems to have realized the importance of Azerbaijani projects and the need to obtain dividends from them, which in its current state is like a breath of fresh air, figuratively speaking.
The Greek government, having agreed to compromise and by holding frequent consultations with SOCAR for an early solution of the protracted problem, have made an important and correct choice, as Athens is not interested in 66 percent share of DESFA to remain up in the air.
All these factors, as well as the fact that the process on DESFA has been recently running very smoothly, show that the parties have entered the final stretch on this issue. Both Azerbaijan and Greece have long been awaiting the completion of the deal. The sooner this issue is resolved, the better it is for all the parties involved.
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Maksim Tsurkov is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov