Galery

1

The upcoming privatization campaign of the Greek government is expected to turn a new page in the management of key companies in the energy sector. First in the queue are the natural gas marketing and distributing companies in Athens and Thessaloniki. Then there are the 65% of the state ownership in Hellenic Petrol and finally, there is the Greek electricity company DEI, which is known to be the most hard nuts to crack because of its fighting unions. According to the arrangements of George Papandreou’s government with the supervisory Troika of Europe and the International Monetary Fund, only the distribution networks of the gas company and the Greek electricity company will remain state-owned by next year’s end.  All other assets of the energy companies will become private against which Greece hopes to receive substantial revenues.

According to a publication in the Greek edition Imerisia, there is serious interest in the liberalization of the Greek energy market from giants like the Russian company Gazprom, the Azerbaijan Socar, the Italian Edison and ENI, the Germans from RWE, Gaz de France and Electricite De France. The government hopes that the race to buy public companies would be serious so that it could sell the companies at the highest possible price, because otherwise it could not meet the target to raise 50 billion euros from privatization by 2015.

The data to date indicates that there is considerable interest to 31% of the national natural gas management system, which controls the whole pipeline system of the country, including the Greek-Turkish connection. However, the company that manages the gas pipes of Greece would be completely privatized under no circumstances because it is considered a company with strategic importance and the government wants to keep at least one trump for harder times. The main interested in buying part of the national natural gas management system in Greece are mainly investment and pension funds and banks.

Meanwhile, the liberalization of the market is expected to bring another big change and it is associated with the ban on the movement of cars with diesel engines in Greece. Cars with diesel engines are prohibited in Greece from the middle of the 1980s. The main reason for the law is associated with the higher levels of pollution due to the diesel engines compared with those of gasoline. Much water ran under the bridge since then and the latest generation of diesel vehicles is much more environment friendly than their old ancestors 30 years ago. The assessment of this change is shared by the European Union, which exerts "pressure" on Greece to cancel the ban because it distorts the competition rules of the Union.

In Greece, only taxis and some trucks have the right to use diesel engines. For comparison, the cars using diesel fuel in Western Europe are about 50% of all the cars in motion, while this percentage is not higher than 2% in Greece. The main reason behind the decision to allow free movement of diesel engine cars is the sharp increase of fuel excise duty.

Gasoline price in the country increased significantly over the past year and a half and people started using their personal vehicles rarely. Accordingly, after the government increased the excise duty the revenue into the Treasury have not proved as high as expected. Despite the increases, diesel remains cheaper than gasoline. Cancelling the ban could fill in the gap between the planned and received revenue in the budget. Diesel in Greece is about 50% cheaper than unleaded gasoline and fuel consumption per 100 km is about 5 l of diesel compared with 6.6 l of gasoline, Imerisia reported. The decision should enter into force until September and allow private diesel cars to move legally on the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki.