Azerbaijan, Baku, August, 2 / Trend /
On Thursday, the State Privatization Fund of Greece welcomed the purchase of a part of shares of the Greece gas transport company DESFA by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), ITAR-TASS news agency reported, referring to the fund.
SOCAR made an improved offer of 400 million euros for 66 percent of shares (31 percent of the State Privatisation Fund and 35 percent of Hellenic Petroleum), which was accepted by the fund.
Earlier, the consortium for the development of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project signed a cooperation agreement with DESFA.
In late June, the consortium for the development of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field, which also includes SOCAR, officially announced the selection of TAP as a transportation route for its gas to Europe.
TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian Sea region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and then to Western Europe.
The gas which will be produced in the second phase of development of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field is considered the main source of the project.
The initial capacity of the TAP pipeline will be 10 billion cubic meters per year with the possibility of expanding to 20 billion cubic meters per year.
The construction of TAP is expected to start in 2015.
Currently TAP's shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (10 percent), E.ON (9 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).