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| Miguel Arias Cañete |
19 January 2017
Georgi Gotev
Europe’s top energy official said today (19 January) that Greek authorities should privatise a majority stake in Greek gas grid operator DESFA, after a deal collapsed last year.
Under its privatisation programme, an important part of its international bailout, Greece and its biggest oil refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, had agreed to sell the DESFA stake to Azerbaijan’s SOCAR for €400 million.
The deal collapsed in November after Athens passed legislation raising DESFA’s gas tariffs by a lower amount than SOCAR had expected and SOCAR asked for a lower price.
18 January 2017
Shareholders of Greece’s power utility Public Power Corp. (PPC) approved yesterday (17 January) the transfer of a 51% stake in the power grid operator ADMIE, part of a spin-off scheme, which is a major term in Greece’s bailout programme.
Under a legislated scheme aiming at keeping ADMIE under state control, PPC will sell a 24% stake to China’s State Grid for €320 million and set up a special vehicle to transfer a cost-free 51% stake to the state and existing private shareholders.
“The extraordinary PPC shareholders meeting approved the procedures in order to conclude ADMIE’s spin-off,” the energy ministry said in a statement.
In 2015, Greece signed up to its third international bailout since the debt crisis erupted, agreeing to cut spending, pursue reforms and speed up privatisations to shore up its finances.
Tuesday, 17 January 2017
The draft Gas Law gives private parties access to the gas infrastructure and provides details of a new licensing regime through regulating transmission, distribution, storage, liquefaction, regasification, shipping, and the supply of gas, according to a note by Sharkawy & Sarhan. The law creates a new independent public entity affiliated with the Oil Ministry that will be responsible for granting licences to parties, ensuring competitiveness and transparency, setting tariffs, and settling disputes. The law firm says the draft will change market dynamics as “EGAS and EGPC will continue to ship gas along with other licensed parties. EGAS and EGPC will contract with [Transmission System Operator] and be committed to the obligations regarding the supplying, shipping and using the grids. EGAS and EGPC will also be bound by the tariff determined by the Gas Regulator and shall preserve transparency.”
20 Dec 2016, 2.25 pm GMT
London, 20 December (Argus) — Turkish gas grid operator Botas has instructed state-run and independent gas-fired power plants to limit their contractual gas use further to just 25pc as of tomorrow at 08:00 local time (05:00 GMT).
Botas had instructed private power plants to halve their gas use as of 14 December, while the state-run Euas and Tetas plants have halved their gas consumption since 24 November, following a drop in Iranian gas flows into Turkey on 22 November.
Gas burn for power fell to 19.8mn m³/d on 14-18 December — or just 10.2pc of total gas use — from 36.2mn m³/d – or 18.8pc of the total — earlier in the month, energy ministry data show.
