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SOCAR not to close office in Greece until DESFA deal done

Oil&Gas Materials 30 May 2016 11:43 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR will not close its representative office in Greece until the deal on SOCAR’s purchasing the share in Greece’s gas transmission system operator DESFA is completed.
SOCAR not to close office in Greece until DESFA deal done

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 30

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR will not close its representative office in Greece until the deal on SOCAR's purchasing the share in Greece's gas transmission system operator DESFA is completed, Greek media reported May 30.

Earlier, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Switzerland Akram Zeynalli in an interview with the Swiss Russian-language edition "Nasha Gazeta" said that SOCAR has closed its official representative office in Geneva due to drop in oil prices. Zeynalli added that offices of SOCAR Trading and SOCAR Energy Switzerland will continue their work. SOCAR Energy Switzerland manages the company's filling stations network in this country.

Commenting on the information about closing of company's representative office in Switzerland, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that the decision on suspension of activities of SOCAR's all foreign offices was made in December 2015.

"Functions of representative offices passed to the Baku office and companies, which are fully owned by SOCAR," explained Abdullayev adding that SOCAR like any other company made appropriate decisions in response to the fall in commodity prices.

SOCAR won a tender in 2013 on the purchase of a 66-percent stake in DESFA for 400 million euros.

The European Commission started an inquiry into the compliance of the DESFA deal with the EU regulations in November 2014.

Currently, the deal is being considered by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition.

Earlier, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said that the deal on SOCAR's purchasing the 66-percent share in Greece's gas transmission system operator DESFA will be completed after Italy's Snam purchases 17 percent of that share.

Edited by SI

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov

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