Baku-APA. Greece will hold a new international tender for the sale of gas firm DEPA a government official announced on Monday, as the privatization program under way in the context of efforts to raise revenues to tackle the debt crisis, hit a snag, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
As the deadline for the submission of final offers for public gas company DEPA and its subsidiary natural gas grid operator DESFA ended on Monday afternoon, the Russian energy giant Gazprom which was expected to make the best final offer for DEPA, as well as other early bidders, did not make binding offers.
In the initial phase, Gazprom had made the top preliminary offer for some 900 million euros (1.18 billion U.S. dollars).
In addition, a second Russian company, Sintez, which was expected to bid for DESFA on Monday also, did not make an offer, leaving the Azeri Socar as the sole bidder.
Following the negative development, Greek Environment and Energy Minister Deputy Minister Asimakis Papageorgiou said that a new tender will be launched for the privatization of DEPA by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), without specifying when.
Russian companies, who had been negotiating the terms of the purchase with Greek officials for months, seem to back track fearing obstacles on the sale from European Commission, according to sources.
Gazprom said on Monday that they did not receive satisfactory guarantees for the collection of due debts to DEPA.
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