Growing LNG importer Greece is positioning itself as an emerging hub for LNG imports and an exporter of gas to the wider southern and eastern Mediterranean region.
Speaking at the World LNG Summit & Awards meeting in Athens, Greek deputy minister of environment and energy Alexandra Sdoukou said the country is set to quadruple its gas export capacity by 2025.
Sdoukou said that by early 2024 Greece’s new floating storage and regasification unit for the Port of Alexandroupolis will double the country’s LNG import capacity and open a new route for supply diversification.
Greek gas utility DESFA chief executive Maria Rita Galli said the FSRU — the 155,000-cbm Alexandroupolis (built 2017) which left Singapore this week — will arrive in December to start commercial operations in early 2024. The unit will have an overall delivery capacity of approximately 5.5bn cbm per year.
She said this will strengthen Greece’s role as “a gateway for LNG supply”.
The minister said another three pipeline projects will be commissioned within 2025, which will enable the country to supply gas to the wider region including countries like Moldova and Ukraine.
“From crisis, we have learned the value of increased cross-border collaboration,” she said, in reference to the energy shortage that gripped Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
She said following Russia’s cessation of pipeline gas to much of Europe, Greece emerged as the primary and sometimes sole source of natural gas for southeast Europe.
The minister added that Greece, which currently operates a single land-based LNG terminal, also wants to explore more synergies with eastern countries in the region.
