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| (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Alexey Borisovich Miller, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Management Committee (CEO) of Russian energy company Gazprom, Russia΄s largest company and the world΄s biggest natural gas producer, (who also has close ties with Putin) arrives in Athens today and is to meet with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
The meeting is a follow-up to a recent visit by government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou to Moscow, while it should be reminded that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might also soon paying Greece a visit.
The key issue of the talks between the Greek premier and Miller is of course the bidding of Greece’s national gas company DEPA which is coming up in April.
Is the Greek government determined to move towards rapprochement with Moscow or to succumb to the brutal intervention of the US and Brussels who are against the acquisition of DEPA and/or DESFA by Russian companies?
No one knows, the only thing that is certain is that the Greek government has said that these state companies would be awarded to whoever made the best offer and certainly these Russian energy companies did just that. It remains to be seen however, if they will actually land in Russian hands because pressure has been placed on the government from both foreign and domestic forces to rethink about this commitment and look for other solutions.
(Nothing surprising here... Dictators dictate and Greece just like other economically weak nations in the world have to bend over and keep their mouths shut )
It should be noted that Gazprom, which supplies about a quarter of the European market with gas, offers investors 42 basis points of extra yield compared with euro notes of Italy’s ENI SpA, rated one level higher at A3 at Moody’s Investors Service.
Russian natural gas is supplied to Greece pursuant to the Intergovernmental Agreement of October 7, 1987 as well as the associated Contract signed between Soyuzgazexport (currently – Gazprom Export) and the Public Gas Corporation of Greece DEPA. The Contract runs until 2016 and stipulates its renewal option. In 2007 Gazprom Export supplied Greece with some 3.14 bcm of gas.
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