Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 15
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The left Greek government took power in January. For a long time the left Greek government's uncertain position on the acquisition of a 66 percent stake in the Greek gas operator (DESFA) by SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic) remained under discussion.
The Greeks even had no time to announce that SOCAR will acquire 49 percent, rather than 66 percent of DESFA shares. However, these people are not in power anymore. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's Cabinet resigned and Greece will face the second parliamentary election during a year.
However, such a development of events is favorable for SOCAR. Thus, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev has recently said that the Azerbaijani side still expects to acquire a 66-percent stake in DESFA.
And this is explainable. This is a very important asset for SOCAR in terms of Azerbaijani gas, to be supplied to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor.
SOCAR's control over Azerbaijani gas at all stages of the project and in all countries through which this corridor will run, will allow to reduce various risks that emerge when transiting gas through the territory of other state.
Moreover, Greece itself will be the consumer of this gas which means that there will be need for the transparent distribution of this gas throughout the country's entire gas network. Naturally, SOCAR wants to undertake the major part of these functions.
On the other hand, the Azerbaijani company has participated in the tender for purchasing namely the 66-percent share, spent sufficient amount of funds, power and time. From this point of view, it is at least impolite to change the terms of the deal, and to deprive SOCAR of the rightful victory.
Currently, much depends on the results of the parliamentary election to be held in Greece Sept.20.
Afterwards it will be needed to negotiate with the new government, and SOCAR is currently waiting.
This deal is important for Greece as well. With all of its debts, every penny counts for Greece's state budget.
And the $400 million that are to be paid by SOCAR in case if the deal is successful, along with the future incomes from the operation of the Southern Gas Corridor, will help Athens fight the economic crisis, given that the 'Turkish Stream', which Tsipras and his associates so much counted on at one time, has been postponed indefinitely.
So far it is unknown how exactly will the events unfold, but one thing is clear - Greece needs joint projects with Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan won't waive its plans regarding Greece.
Edited by SI
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
