BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 15. Azerbaijani gas has played a crucial role in reducing Greece's reliance on Russian gas to just 20 percent, said a Greek official, Trend reports.
Addressing the Energy Security Conference held in Warsaw, Poland, Greek Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Alexandra Sdoukou highlighted the substantial decrease in Greece's dependence on Russian gas from 40 percent to 20 percent between August 2022 and March 2023.
Sdoukou attributed this achievement to several key factors, including the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), facilitating the import of Azerbaijani gas, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, and the LNG terminal in Revythoussa. Nevertheless, she expressed concern about gas prices.
Furthermore, Sdoukou noted that Greece's current situation is more favorable than the previous year, as the results of recent simulations based on the National Risk Study for the upcoming winter do not indicate any significant gas shortages with severe consequences for the country, particularly when compared to the challenges faced last winter.
In conclusion, Deputy Minister Alexandra Sdoukou emphasized a crucial lesson from the recent crisis: the European Union should avoid reliance on a single energy supplier and should not depend solely on one transit country for its natural gas imports to ensure energy security.
Data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, shows that Greece has significantly increased its gas imports from Azerbaijan.
June saw a notable surge in imports, with 174.6 million cubic meters received, compared to 163 million cubic meters in May, marking a 7.1 percent month-on-month increase.
Greece imported a total of 1.020 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan between January and June 2023.
The total expenditure by Greece on natural gas purchases from Azerbaijan during the initial six months of 2023 reached 523.8 million euros. However, this amount decreased in June to more than 58 million euros, compared to 68.8 million euros spent in May, representing a 15.7 percent decrease.
Azerbaijan supplies gas to Europe through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is the final link in the Southern Gas Corridor and has a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, with the potential to expand to 20 billion cubic meters annually.
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