Azerbaijan foreign minister, SOCAR vice-president for Malta visit - MALTA TODAY

17 April 2017, 8:31am

The foreign minister of Azerbaijan will lead a delegation in a visit to the Maltese prime minister later on this afternoon, in a three-day visit.

The 6:30pm visit from Elmar Mammadyarov, which includes executives from the state oil and gas company SOCAR, was revealed by Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Over the weekend, her allegations of money transfers from an Azerbaijan bank account to the Panama offshore companies held by the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and minister Konrad Mizzi were instantly met with two libel actions.

TANAP's external financing could reach $4bn: SOCAR - NATURAL GAS WORLD

December 16th, 2016, 9:45am

Shareholders in the Tanap gas pipeline may draw $4bn from international financial institutions for the project's construction, Azerbaijan state oil and gas company Socar's president Rovnag Abdullayev said in an interview with the Turkish news agency Anadolu December 15.

“Attracting external funding for Tanap is being negotiated with banks. So far, there are no concrete results, but we assume that the negotiations for the project will attract $4bn,” said Abdullayev.

Negotiations are conducted with the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), as well as with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), he said.

There is still a possibility of transferring a 8% stake in the Tanap project to Socar Turkey Energy from the 58% currently held by Socar, said Abdullayev, adding: "We expect that this transfer will be formalized soon."

Southern Gas Corridor company to give 8 per cent of TANAP shares to SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.Ş. - AZERTAC

Baku, December 15, AZERTAC

Southern Gas Corridor company, which is an Azerbaijani shareholder of Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), will give 8 out of its 58 per cent of shares to SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.Ş, said President of SOCAR Rovnaq Abdullayev.

“We are working with our partners on this. We plan to finalize this process soon,” he added.

SOCAR has operated in Turkey as SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.Ş since 2008.

SOCAR to extend guarantee letter for purchase of Greece's DESFA - KATHIMERINI / REUTERS

Tuesday September 27, 2016

Azerbaijan’s state energy company Socar has agreed to extend a letter of guarantee for its acquisition of Greek gas network operator DESFA by a month, the office of the prime minister said on Tuesday.

The guarantee letter was due to expire on Friday and Socar had previously said it would only go ahead with the deal if the cost was cut significantly, given that a number of snags had emerged since it first agreed to buy DESFA in 2013.

Socar president Rovnag Abdullayev met Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday to discuss the issue and the Greek statement said the meeting took place in a “positive atmosphere.”

Azerbaijan's SOCAR to hold Greek gas grid deal talks in Athens - REUTERS

Fri Sep 23, 2016 11:50am GMT

BAKU, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR plans to hold talks with Greek officials over a deal to buy Greek natural gas pipeline operator DESFA, SOCAR's president said on Friday.

In 2013, SOCAR agreed to 66 percent of the crisis-hit gas supply grid operator for 400 million euros ($448.5 million). But the deal stalled after SOCAR was ordered to sell 17 percent of DESFA to a third party to satisfy EU competition authorities.

Complicating the sale further, Greece passed a law in July raising DESFA's gas tariffs from next year by a much lower amount than expected.

"Our delegation will hold negotiations in Greece on September 27-28," Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters.

Socar Hits Desfa Snag - NATURAL GAS EUROPE

July 26th, 2016, John Roberts

Azerbaijan's state energy company Socar is running into problems concerning its stake in Greece's natural gas grid operator, Desfa, with the Greek parliament expected to vote imminently for a crucial change concerning the value of Desfa.

As a result, Socar is expected to send a delegation of senior officials to hold talks in Athens this week. They will address two main problems. The first concerns the size of Socar's stake in Desfa. The second – which is both far more important and far more complex – concerns the methodology of accounting within Desfa.

The first point is relatively straightforward. When Socar won the tender to acquire a 66% stake in Desfa for €400mn in June 2013, purchasing a 35% stake from Hellenic Petroleum and a 31% stake from Greek government, it had strong EU backing, not least because the leading alternative bidder was a Russian company, Sintez. At the time, the EU was also worried that Gazprom would seek to purchase Desfa's parent company, Depa, the Greek natural gas supply company. In the event, however, nobody bid for Depa and only Socar bid for Desfa.

SOCAR looks to buy stakes in Egyptian refineries | Hydrocarbon Processing

SOCAR looks to buy stakes in Egyptian refineries

11.11.2015

"We would like to widen our activities in Egypt, particularly to buy stakes in refineries there and participate in Egypt's oil refining," SOCAR's president Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters.

Azerbaijan's state-run energy company SOCAR is interested in buying stakes in refineries in Egypt, according to a new report this week from Reuters.

"We would like to widen our activities in Egypt, particularly to buy stakes in refineries there and participate in Egypt's oil refining," SOCAR's president Rovnag Abdullayev told

reporters.

Abdullayev made his comments after his return from a recent trip to Egypt, where he discussed energy sector cooperation with Egyptian officials.

Azerbaijan is currently exporting about 1 MMtpy of oil and refined products to Egypt.

Source: http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/Article/3505695/Latest-News/SOCAR-looks-to-buy-stakes-in-Egyptian-refineries.html