Natural gas: How much is Greece at risk if the flow from Russia is interrupted

The extraordinary meeting of the Crisis Management Group ended shortly after one o'clock in the afternoon convened by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, to assess the adequacy of the country's gas supply in case of a disruption of supply from Russia.

According to reports, the conclusion of the meeting is that Greece has one of the lowest risks to supply adequacy in Europe, provided that two necessary conditions are met. One is that the lignites are running at full capacity and the gas-fired plants are switched back to diesel operation and the second is that LNG is available on the market.

We recall that the emergency plan drawn up by the Ministry of Environment and Energy provides for:

• Securing more LNG cargoes
• Increase in lignite mining
• Operation of diesel power plants
• More Azerbaijani gas through the TAP pipeline

Uncertain LNG price in the Russian gas cut-off scenario

At the meeting it was also expressed by the participants that the price of LNG cannot be determined in case of a complete cut-off of Russian gas to Europe, which in such an eventuality would skyrocket, dragging down the stock market prices on the basis of which the Member States ultimately buy the fuel.

Recall that the European Union, based on June figures, imported more LNG from the US for the first time in its history, rather than through the gas pipeline from Russia, with International Energy Agency (IEA) President Fatih Birol calling on EU countries to work on reducing demand and prepare for a difficult winter.

At the same time, during the meeting, the significantly upgraded role of Greece in the supply of Europe was highlighted. As it was said, the picture is encouraging on a pan-European level and this «generates» more demands from our country, which under intergovernmental agreements is required to supply natural gas to other countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, through its infrastructure and mainly through Revithoussa. «We have the possibility of fully covering the Greek market», Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said on the issue.

The meeting was attended by:

• Dimitrios Fourlaris, RAE's Second Vice President and Chairman of the Crisis Management Group and Maria Kirkidou, Head of the Energy Studies, Planning and Supply Security Department of the Authority,
• Ioannis Kopanakis, Deputy CEO of PPC and Konstantinos Nazos, General Manager of Energy Management,
•  Maria Rita Galli, Managing Director of DESFA, Nikolaos Katsis, Director of Infrastructure Management of DESFA and Sarris Demetriou, Director of Operations,
• Manos Manousakis, Chairman and CEO of ADMIE and Demetrios Michos, General Manager of Infrastructure and Market Operations of the company,
• Konstantinos Xifaras, CEO of DEPA Trading and Konstantinos Karagiannakos, Executive Director of Commercial Activities of the company,
• Nikolaos Zachariadis, Managing Director of Elpedison and Andreas Petropoules, Director of Energy Management of the company,
• Loukas Demetriou, Director General of the HERON,
• Konstantinos Benroubis, Director General of the Electricity Sector of the Protergia and Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, CEO of the company.

Alexandra Sdoukou, Secretary General of Energy and Mineral Resources, Athanasios Petralias, Secretary General of Fiscal Policy and Nikolaos Tsafos also participated in the meeting, Advisor to the Prime Minister's Office on energy issues.