Greece May Be Key Player In European Energy Security

…which is why it’s often said here that Greece is going nowhere (See also HERE and HERE). It simply holds too much strategic value as it is the gateway to Europe. Whether it’s 100% submission to the German-led troika or a parallel currency compromise, the most likely option, it will stick around in one form or another.

 

The United States is reporting some success in persuading Greece to accommodate a Western-backed pipeline through Turkey to supply Europe with gas from the Caspian Sea rather than an alternative project – backed by Moscow – that would ship Russian gas.

Washington sent Amos Hochstein, the State Department’s special envoy on energy affairs, to Athens to discuss the options with several Greek officials. On May 8 Hochstein reported that both sides “agreed on more than we disagreed.”

Greece on the verge of default: flirting with Russia, quarrels with the EU

Petrakos told Spiegel that Greece wants “to deepen its relations with Russia in the energy sector” and get significant mutual benefit from this. The Greek delegation will talk to the Russian Minister of Energy, Alexander Novak, and the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller. The periodical reminds that Gazprom controls about 70% of the Greek gas market.

The Role of Greece in the Geostrategic Chessboard of Natural Gas

As earlier described, don’t count Greece out of the picture, as they are much too critical for the German dominated EU to lose. Germany needs energy independence from Russia and needs to keep the EU in tact as a whole, otherwise a broken up European continent would not provide the solidarity needed to stand up to the Soviets.  Without one, or both, Germany would otherwise remain a stagnant useless nation plagued with external and internal security issues. Greece will become a major, if not the major, energy transit hub for all of Europe. China also once hailed Greece as the “gateway to Europe”.

 

Amid the hard times Greece is going through, the assertion that it is turning into an important regional player in the natural gas scene is not an exaggeration. Its geostrategic location on the map offers a number of advantages, which can translate to an economic competitive advantage, as well as to an upgrade of its geopolitical role in South-East Europe.

Firstly, Greece’s role in the international chessboard of pipelines becomes critical. The selection of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) as the avenue for EU’s Southern Energy Corridor, as well as the pending project for the Greece-Italy Poseidon (IGI) pipeline with the participation of DEPA, is decisive; not only will it support local economies during the construction phase, but also ‘locks’ this particular route through Greece as the main entrance hub of Azeri gas to Europe.

South Stream ‘Plan B’ opts for route through Greece and Turkey

A Russian newspaper has published an article suggesting that the Kremlin-favoured South Stream gas pipeline could drop Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Slovenia for its route, and instead reach its final destinations, Italy and Austria, through Turkey and Greece.

On Monday (18 August), Russian business newspaper Vzglyad published an article by journalist Oleg Makarenko, claiming that Gazprom has a “plan B” in case Bulgaria continues to obstruct the construction of the South Stream pipeline.

A caretaker government in Sofia, which took office on 6 August, has frozen the construction of South Stream, following clear indications from Brussels that the EU executive would impose infringements on Bulgaria, unless the country re-negotiates its bilateral agreement with Russia for the construction of the pipeline, which is in breach of EU law.

EU wants ‘Mediterranean hub’ for Azeri gas

Key policy ties in with the Maltese government’s prospective energy shift to gas, supplied by Azeri state corporation SOCAR

The European Union is looking southwards to develop a “southern gas corridor” for natural gas from Azerbaijan to fuel the European mainland.

The European Commission released an EU energy security strategy earlier this week, in response to the political crisis in Ukraine which is threatening gas supplies from Russia, after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia could cut off supplies to Ukraine unless the latter starts to pay off its gas debt, which Russia’s Gazprom says stands at €2.5 billion.

Italy looks at Mediterranean for alternatives to Russian gas

Italy could increase gas imports from Algeria, Libya and the Netherlands to counter any disruption of supplies from Russia, Deputy Industry Minister Claudio De Vincenti said on Monday as G7 energy ministers gathered in Rome.

“We are capable of rapidly increasing imports from the supplier countries … Libya, Algeria and the Netherlands,” De Vincenti told Reuters.

…

Italy, which generates more than 40% of its electricity from gas, is increasingly dependent on Russian gas as Algerian imports decline and Libyan supplies are limited by growing unrest in the country.

Europe fails to tap Caspian Sea’s surging gas supplies

European countries are losing out to China in their quest to source natural gas from the Central Asian states.

Moving away from dependence on Russia and Middle East hydrocarbons was a key energy objective of European countries in the 1990s, and the oil and natural gas resources along the Caspian Sea was seen as a vital alternative.

Instead, European oil dependence on Russia and the Middle East has grown from 75% in 2000 to 84% by 2010. In addition, EU reliance on gas imports has also risen from 49% to 62% during the period.

Trans Adriatic Pipeline to bring Azeri gas to Europe

In a long-awaited decision to bring Azeri gas resources to Europe, the Shah Deniz II consortium opted for a pipeline running through Greece and Albania instead of a rival northwestern route, Nabucco West, running from Bulgaria to Austria.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will stretch 870 kilometres from the Greek-Turkish border. Moving west, TAP is designed to extend across the breadth of northern Greece before veering northwest to Albania. From Fier, Albania, plans envision the pipeline crossing under the Adriatic to emerge in southern Italy.

Six Balkan countries agree on new routes for energy imports into Western Europe, sign cooperation agreement

Greece could very well regain its footing within the EU should this materialize. It could also serve as the cooridor to Europe for oil and gas deposits within the contested Cyprus region, which was also recently wrestled away from the Turks and Russians by the EU.

On May 23, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Croatia signed a memorandum on cooperation in the implementation of projects concerning the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and the Ionic-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) in Tirana, the capital city of Albania. Montenegrin Foreign Minister Igor Luksic, Vice Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zlatko Lagumdžija, Albanian Foreign Minister Aldo Bumçi and Croatian Deputy Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Joško Klisovic represented their respective countries at the meeting.

Russian gas pipeline could doom Europe’s Nabucco plan

Europe’s grand plan for the gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea was derailed with the 2008 Soviet invasion of Georgia. That was the true intention behind the war and not a handful of unruly politicians or military provocations from a nation not much bigger than Israel, with half the capability. Putin himself said the war was pre-planned (Additional source here). Create the crisis and provide the solution — energy dependancy on Russia in this case. That was (and still is) the aim.

• Europe, U.S. support for Nabucco weakened
• Azeri consortium expected to pick winner in June
• Gas due to flow to European Union from 2019

VIENNA/BRUSSELS, May 28 (Reuters) – Europe’s grand plan for a gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea that would make its eastern states less reliant on Russia may have been fatally undermined by Russia’s even bigger project.

As Azerbaijan nears a decision on which pipeline to choose for its future exports, the Nabucco plan that was long the European Union favourite could lose out to the more modest Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) across Greece to southern Italy.