Purchase of a stake in DESFA by SOCAR is delayed

​The reasons of the delay in the purchase of 66% in DESFA (gas operator of Greece) are bureaucratic procedures in Europe, the President of SOCAR, R. Abdullaev said.

He said that a large team of SOCAR’s employees keeps working on this project.

“The new Government of Greece doesn’t have anything against this issue. They say that they respect the decisions made by the Government. We also respect these decisions and consider the project to  be profit making. It will play an important role in further development of the gas sector in Azerbaijan. The companies – gas exporters to Europe differ one from another and we also need to meet the existing rules”, Mr. Abdullaev said.

In December 2013 SOCAR won a tender for the purchase of 66% of shares of DESFA for 400 mln euro. The rest part of shares will belong to Greece.