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The Russian giant Gazprom and Greek Motor Oil Hellas along with M & M GAS holding are the main competitors for the purchase of the public Greek natural gas company DEPA. The state still holds 65% of the company and it is considered one of the strongest cards of the privatization plan of the present government.

The race also involves the public Azerbaijan gas company Socar and the Russian Sintez, which will be represented by its subsidiary Negusneft.

The consortium between the Greek holding GEK TRENA and the PPF financial fund are interested in DEPA’s subsidiary – DESFA, which manages the national natural gas distribution system.

The Italian companies Edison and ENI, the Germans from RWE, Gaz de France and other strategic investors from Western Europe have remained outside the bidding for the Greek gas company. The State Property Management Fund, which manages the privatization, is not satisfied with the decreased interest in DEPA. The high risk, which the Greek economy still bears, has driven West European countries that had expressed their interest at the beginning of the process to withdraw from the race for entering the Greek gas market, local analysts told GRReporter.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to see opportunities to deeper penetrate the European market through the privatization of DEPA. The possible purchase of the Greek company by a Russian firm will not appeal to Brussels, which is makikng efforts to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas.

DEPA reported 60 million euro in earnings before taxes for 2011. DESFA, in turn, gained 900 million euro before taxes and interests. The problem with these companies remains the fact that they operate and develop in a highly uncertain macroeconomic environment that will adversely affect their market price.

The government is planning to select the most suitable successor to the gas company by the end of the first quarter of 2013.

The candidates:

Gazprom is one of the largest companies for production, trade and distribution of natural gas in the world. 50.002% of it is held by the state. In late 2011, the firm was valued at 128 billion dollars. Gazprom has been supplying natural gas to Greece since 1996.

Motor Oil Hellas is owned by the Greek oil tycoon Vardis Vardinogiannis. He joined forces with Miltiadis Holding, owner of M & M GAS, to fight for the purchase of the state share of the company. In one year, the Greek consortium has managed to establish itself in the market and develop its own LNG import in Greece.

Socar is Azerbaijan's public gas company, which has major influence on the development of the deposits in the Caspian Sea. It has signed a development agreement for the deposits in Shah Denizs with British Petroleum (BP), which decided to turn to the east after the accident in the Mexican Gulf two years ago. Socar produces 8.4 million tons of oil annually and 7.1 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

Sintez is the Russian industrial holding company, which operates in the areas of energy, exploration and extraction of mineral resources and real estate.

PPF is a Czech fund with investors from Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Belarus, Vietnam and China. An investor in the fund from the Greek side is Piraeus Bank. The fund cooperates with the Greek company for construction and development of energy projects, GEK TRENA, which is active not only in the country but also in neighbouring countries, the Middle East and the USA.