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Greece asks Azerbaijan to give first refusal on natural gas

13 May 2009 13:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov - APA-Economics. Rovnag Abdullayev, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), has hosted a delegation led to Azerbaijan by Miltiades Varvitsiotis, Greece’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, SOCAR said.

Miltiades Varvitsiotis said that his visit was aimed at expanding economic ties with Azerbaijan.

According to him, Greece wants to be the first European country to get of direct gas supplies from Azerbaijan via the TGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy) pipeline.

He said that the TGI project has advantages in terms of implementation at minimal time and cost.

John Kostopoulos, President of the Greek Oil Company, said they take interest in buying Azeri light oil for refineries in Greece.

Rovnag Abdullayev said negotiations with Greeceâ€™s Depa and Italiaâ€™s Edisson are under way on the TGI project and Azerbaijan explores various proposals and projects for diversification of gas delivery to Europe.