Baku, Azerbaijan, May 11
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR and the Greek government will on May 17 discuss the negotiations on purchasing a share in Greece's gas transmission system operator DESFA, the SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters May 11 in Baku.
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 2013 on the sale of the 66-percent stake in DESFA for 400 million euros.
Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Panos Skourletis said in autumn of 2015 that in order to complete the deal on SOCAR's purchasing the 66-percent share in DESFA, it is necessary to sell 17 percent of this share to a European company.