US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt said that Greece would be the third European country to begin importing American LNG, after Poland and Lithuania, New Europe reported on December 5, 2017.
Speaking at the Greek Economy conference organised by the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce in Athens, the American diplomat said the Greek government has promised to import LNG from the United States.
«Energy is an obvious area of growth. There is clear interest from American companies, and I’m also encouraged that there is such a convergence between US and Greek policy views on this critical sector,» Pyatt said.
The US diplomat reminded that US President Donald Trump and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras discussed during the latter’s visit to Washington DC, America’s «commitment and optimism» for the Greek energy sector as a way to accelerate the Mediterranean country’s economic recovery.
«Greece is at the tipping point in terms of establishing itself as a major European energy hub,» Pyatt said, citing natural gas projects like the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) in Alexandroupolis, the upgraded Revithousa terminal and the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector (IGB) as examples of Greece’s energy potential.
«The IGB Interconnector for instance, has the potential to open up the whole Balkan energy island, using Greece as the entry point to get away from the current dependence on monopoly suppliers that characterises many of the Balkan countries,» said Pyatt, who has advocated the need for the EU to lessen Europe’s dependence on gas supplies from Russia’s Gazprom.
