Azerbaijani side expects specific moves from Greece to cover damages caused on DESFA deal
By Gunay Camal
The amendments made by the Greek Energy Ministry that severely reduces DEFSA’s leeway for network usage hikes and, by extension, the operator’s revenue potential, is an “unprecedented” move.
Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Greece Rahman Mustafayev made the
statement in his interview to Greek weekly To Vima.
“The operator’s market value has been reduced and the risk level
has increased, which is why we expect specific moves from the Greek
side in order to cover the damages caused,” Mustafayev said.
The envoy further added that despite this, SOCAR remains
interested in the DESFA deal, adding that he hopes the
privatization can be swiftly completed.
SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters on September 5 that SOCAR is
not going to abandon the purchase of a share in the Greek gas
operator DESFA.
“We won the tender and we’re not going to abandon the deal [with
DESFA],” Abdullayev said. “We don’t talk about appealing to a
court, but we will defend our interests till the end. The
originally negotiated rules have been violated. We are now waiting
for justification from the government of Greece. Under the new
rules, DESFA’s value should be twice cheaper, so we are in talks
with the Greek government.”
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. Regarding Italy’s Snam, the company, just like SOCAR, is in
talks with the Greek government regarding the situation, Abdullayev
said.
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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