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Italy’s Snam reveals conditions for DESFA deal

Oil&Gas Materials 21 September 2016 16:29 (UTC +04:00)
Italian operator Snam wants to be a part of privatization of the Greek national gas transmission system operator DESFA, but only if Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR stays.
Italy’s Snam reveals conditions for DESFA deal

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 21

By Aygun Badalova – Trend

Italian operator Snam wants 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 that are informed on the sale’s latest developments.

According to the sources, a Snam representative who met with Greek energy ministry officials on Aug.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.

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.

Greek MPs stressed that the problems with the privatization of DESFA may deprive the country’s economy of SOCAR’s huge capital injections.

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