Kostas Stambolis: We have reduced our dependence on Russian gas to just 4%

“Greece has reduced its dependence on Russian natural gas to just 4% in May and June,” Kostis Stambolis, energy strategy consultant and president of the SE European Energy Institute (IENE), told SKAI 100.3.

The issue of energy will be raised today at the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, where Greece will be represented by Finance Minister Christos Staikouras, who will also participate in the Ecofin meeting.

At the same time, Europe is living with the anxiety of Putin’s next moves, as from today the tap for transporting Russian natural gas to Germany through the Nord Stream 1.

The reason for the outage is maintenance work on the pipeline, which crosses the Baltic Sea and is considered the most important for the flow of fuel to Europe’s largest economy.

The flow was due to stop at 06:00 (local time; 07:00 Greece time) and, in theory at least, will resume on the morning of July 21.

However, several officials in Germany are expressing increasing concern intensifying their concern that the flow may not be restoredas Russia’s war against Ukraine continues.

Germany and other Western countries have imposed successive rounds of sanctions on Moscow to force it to end the war.

But many countries are heavily dependent on Russian energy, and Moscow has responded by suspending or cutting gas supplies to several of them, seen as a retaliatory move in Europe.

Russian state gas company Gazprom has already significantly reduced deliveries through the 1,200km pipeline between Russia and northern Germany, citing delays in maintenance and repair work. Moscow attributes the delays to sanctions imposed by Western nations, an argument German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejects.

The fact that only 40% of the pipeline’s capacity was being used led to further price increases on the gas market, according to Germany’s federal grid agency.

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