In their first official meeting, the excellent climate of cooperation that exists between the two governments in the energy sector was confirmed, as the US ambassador recognized the key role that Greece plays in the independence of not only Greece, but also the whole of Southeast Europe from Russian natural gas.
The government’s planning for the weaning off Russian natural gas and the contingency plan; in the event of a supply interruption from Russia presented by the Minister of Environment and Energy Kostas Skrekas to the US Ambassador to Greece, George Tsuni with whom he had the first official meeting today.
During the meeting, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the excellent climate of cooperation that exists between the two governments in the energy sector was confirmed, as the US ambassador recognized the key role that Greece plays in the de-addiction not only of itself but also of the whole of South-Eastern Europe from Russian natural gas.
Mr. Skrekas highlighted its importance Liquefied Natural Gas regasification terminal of Alexandroupoliswhich is also being built of the cross-border Natural Gas pipeline with Bulgaria that was inaugurated last week in Komotini underlining – based on the data of the first half of the year – that the share of Russian gas in our import mix has decreased by 21%, while the participation of Liquefied Natural Gas has respectively increased by 48% compared to the same period last year.
The Greek minister emphasized to the American ambassador that LNG currently accounts for 44% of final natural gas consumption of the country and that 60% of all LNG imports come from the USA with a potentially increasing trend. Mr. Skrekas analyzed with the American ambassador the general energy security situation in the EU. created by the reduction of Russian gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which (unless Moscow decides otherwise) is expected to reopen on July 21.
The minister presented the main aspects of the national emergency plan in case of interruption of Russian natural gas to Greece, assuring that all the necessary measures have been taken to ensure the energy sufficiency of the country through a combination of actions. These include,
– the increase in domestic lignite production,
– the readiness to convert the fuel of 5 power generation units from natural gas to diesel and
– increasing both the storage capacity and the regasification capacity of Revythoussa with the addition of a floating tank (FSU).
Finally, Mr. Skrekas presented the country’s strategy in the field of electrical interconnections, placing particular emphasis on the planning that has been launched with Israel, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Albania and also Bulgaria, where the second line Nea Santa – Maritsa is expected to be completed by the beginning of next year at the latest, thus increasing the possibility of importing electricity from our neighboring country.
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