The expansion is a key step to increase consumption of the environmentally cleaner fuel in Greece and boost the value of state-run natural gas operator Depa, which the debt-laden country has slated for privatisation.
The government will soon publish tenders inviting private companies to bid for stakes and managing three new local supply companies which will cover large parts of northern and central Greece, minister Yannis Maniatis told lawmakers.
"We expect to have picked contractors by the end of the year," he said. The projects will receive public subsidies, with completion expected in 2015, Maniatis said.
Under the terms of Greece's energy market opening, Depa owns 51 percent of local supply companies (EPAs), which have a monopoly until 2030 to sell natural gas to small industrial, residential customers.
There are currently three EPAs covering the country's two biggest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki, as well as parts of central Greece. The minority partners managing them include Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's Eni.
Depa is 65-percent owned by the government, with refiner Hellenic Petroleum holding the rest. Greece in January appointed advisers including UBS for the possible sale of a stake.
Helped by the rising use of natural gas at home and exports through new pipelines in the region, Depa eyes doubling its sales this decade from about one billion euros in 2009.
source: REUTERS
