The Greek parliament has approved the country's new energy law, in order to implement the EU's third energy directive and to pave the way for increased competition in the country's energy markets. The law includes provisions to unbundle and privatise gas companies DEPA (the incumbent gas importer and supplier) and DESFA (the country's gas pipeline operator, wholly owned by DEPA) by the end of the year. The law gives no details as to how much of DESFA will be privatised, nor whether the three distribution companies owned by DEPA will be included in the privatization plan. The privatization process could help Greece to avoid a restructuring of, or default on, its €340bn debt.
To comply with the third energy directive, the new energy law will give REA, the energy regulator, stronger and larger powers, including the ability to approve network code modifications and secondary legislation (former prerogative of the Minister), to issue licenses and to replace the current postage-stamp system of gas pipeline access with an entry-exit system. RAE also plans to establish a virtual trading point for gas from September 2011. The energy law also covers the exploration and production (E&P) of hydrocarbons: a new state-owned company responsible for the E&P in Greece will be created to issue tenders, negotiating contracts and collecting revenues from production. The tax paid on profit from production will be reduced from 40% to 20% to encourage E&P activities.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.