Socar inks deal to buy Greek gas firm stake

ATHENS - Agence France-Presse

SOCAR head Abdullayev (picture) and Greek Energy Minister Maniatis have signed a deal to buy 66 percent of Greek gas distributor DESFA. CİHAN photo

Azerbaijan’s state gas operator SOCAR has finalized an agreement to buy 66 percent of Greek gas distributor DESFA, the Greek privatization agency has said.

The sale is part of Greece’s state asset sale program that stems from its EU-IMF bailout obligations.
The contract was signed on Dec. 21 in the presence of Greek Energy Minister Yannis Maniatis and SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev.

SOCAR will pay 400 million euros ($546 million) for DESFA, the company that handles Greece’s gas transmission system, the agency said.

The Azerbaijani company is part of a long-term initiative to supply Caspian Sea natural gas to nine European buyers, installing the Caucasus nation as an alternative energy source to Russia.

TANAP to transfer 16 bln cubic meters gas The Shah Deniz II consortium - which comprises Britain’s BP, Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, Norway’s Statoil and France’s Total - earlier this year inked deals to supply gas to Europe over a 25-year period. The consortium has said it aims to extract 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year from under the Caspian Sea.

Six billion cubic meters of gas will go to Turkey from 2018 and the rest will go to Europe from 2019, after the new TANAP pipeline across Turkey and the TAP pipeline from Turkey to Italy are completed.