Greek Energy & Environment Minister Kostas Skrekas briefed US Ambassador to Athens George Tsunis on Tuesday about the government's contingency plan in the event of Russia cutting off its supply of natural gas.
In his first official meeting with Tsunis, Skrekas presented the Greek government's overall plan for phasing out dependency on Russian natural gas.
Skrekas underlined that the share of Russian gas in Greece's import total has decreased by 21%, while the share of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has correspondingly increased by 48% compared to the same period last year.
The Greek minister noted that LNG currently accounts for 44% of the country's natural gas consumption, while 60% of all LNG imports come from the US - with a potentially increasing trend.
They also discussed the energy security situation in the EU that was given rise to by the reduction of Russian gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which is expected to reopen on July 21, unless decided otherwise by Moscow, it was noted.
The minister presented the main aspects of the national emergency plan in the event of an interruption of Russian natural gas flow to Greece, assuring Tsunis that all the necessary measures have been taken to ensure energy sufficiency through a combination of actions; these include:
- Increasing domestic lignite production
- Readiness to convert the fuel of five power generation units from natural gas to diesel
- Increasing both the storage capacity and the regasification capacity of Revythoussa station with the addition of a floating storage tank (FSU)