ATHENS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR wants to go ahead with a deal to buy Greek natural gas pipelines operator DESFA and has not taken any decision to pull out of the process, its chief executive in Greece said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.
SOCAR agreed in 2013 to buy a 66 percent stake in the crisis-hit gas supply grid operator for 400 million euros ($448 million). But the acquisition has stalled since SOCAR was ordered to sell on 17 percent of DESFA to a third party to satisfy the EU competition authorities.
Complicating the sale further, Greece passed a law in July which raised DESFA's gas tariffs from next year by a much lower amount than expected, a move which SOCAR said has dramatically reduced DESFA's value and put the deal at risk.
"We have not taken any such decision (to drop out)," SOCAR Energy Greece Chief Executive Anar Mammadov told Kathimerini newspaper.
"We want the privatisation to be wrapped up. For that to happen the government should compensate for the damage done to DESFA's value."
DESFA's sale is part of a privatisation programme required under Greece's three international bailouts since 2010 and is expected to raise 188 million euros for state coffers this year, helping the country meet a 2.5 billion-euro target for state asset sales. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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