DEPA

Interview to George Kanellopoulos

Greece's state-controlled gas utility DEPA announced on Thursday that Greece started receiving natural gas from the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) after the completion of its construction in December.

DEPA signed a 25-year gas supply contract with TAP in 2013 for the supply of natural gas from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan.

Greece's privatization agency (TAIPED) said on Tuesday that it has shortlisted seven investors for the purchase of a majority stake in the country's dominant gas supplier, DEPA Commercial.

Greece has short-listed six investors in the sale of its state-controlled gas distribution network DEPA Infrastructure, the country's privatization agency said on Tuesday.

Italy's Italgas is still very interested in Greek gas distribution network DEPA and is waiting for Athens to publish a short list, the group's CEO Paolo Gallo said on Wednesday.
In February Greece's privatization agency said it had received nine expressions of interest for the sale of DEPA Infrastructure.

Greece on Thursday gave investors the option of submitting their interest in a majority stake in the wholesale and retail business of its biggest gas utility electronically to facilitate the process in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

Greece is selling its 65 percent stake in DEPA Commercial in line with a post-bailout agreement with its lenders to open up the gas market.

Oil giant Shell is seeking to make a fresh entry in the domestic natural gas market through DEPA Commercial, changing the landscape in the battle for a 65 percent stake in the company, and generally in the retail and wholesale natural gas market.

Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE) chief executive Andreas Shiamishis told Kathimerini in an interview that "the transition of the market to the new energy model is now certain and any companies that don't acknowledge that and don't include it in their plans will sooner or later face problems."

Nine groups submitted a letter of interest in the full ownership of DEPA Infrastructure, a new company to be created by the partial division of the Greek public natural gas company's (DEPA) infrastructure section, by the deadline on Friday.

Speaking on Thursday to the chief executive officer of Public Gas Corporation (DEPA), Konstantinos Xifaras, US Ambassador in Athens Geoffrey Pyatt expressed Washington's warm support for the project of the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) off Alexandroupoli in northeastern Greece, as it assists the US in its strategy for the diversification of Europe's energy sources.