Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis received in Athens the U.S. U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Chairman of the White House National Energy Dominance Council and billionaire businessman, Doug Burgum, on Thursday.
Burgum arrived in Athens, a day after US oil multinational Chevron officially expressed interest in hydrocarbon exploration in South Greece (KTG reported HERE).
Referring to Chevorn, PM Mitsotakis told the American visitor that he arrives in Athens “at a very interesting moment,” adding that he believes “this is an opportunity to reaffirm the strategic partnership between our two countries, while placing a particular focus on energy and energy cooperation.”
The Greek Premier stressed that Chevron’s presence “reaffirms the sovereign rights of the Hellenic Republic in that region,” as the Greek government geo-strategic narrative says.
“We are also particularly pleased that we can speak about Greece’s regional role as a pillar of energy security for the wider area. We are now a country that exports natural gas. We are a major hub for the import and export of natural gas in the region. We export electricity, we export petroleum products, and this makes us a very strong player in the Eastern Mediterranean. We look forward to further strengthening this partnership between our two countries, for the benefit, I believe, of both our peoples.”
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior thanked the Greek Prime Minister on behalf of Donald Trump and the American government.
He said that he considers Greece a strategic partner, adding that the relations between the two countries can grow and expand, especially in the field of energy and energy security.
The Trump administration has specific goals related to energy, and one of them is energy self-sufficiency – selling energy to friends and allies so that they don’t have to buy from our adversaries,” Burgum said.
He added that “the North-South corridor, Greece’s role with its long history in shipping, its access to the sea, and the pipeline system that extends north from here – all these create many opportunities for Greek companies and for Greece itself to contribute to energy security in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Burgum underlined that “the United States is fully committed to replacing Russian gas with American gas.”
Burgum visits LNG Terminal in Revithoussa
Later during the day, Burgum visited Rebythousa, accompanied by the Environment and Energy Minister, Stavros Papastavrou.
Revithoussa, a small, uninhabited island in the Saronic Gulf, hosts one of the most important national infrastructures in Greece, the Revithoussa Liquified Natural Gas Terminal since 1999.
80% of the LNG unloaded there is from ships comes from the United States.
On average, 30 ships, 30 LNG cargoes arrive each year, in recent years that is since the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and as the flows of Russian natural gas gradually decrease, the quantities of LNG coming from the United States increase greatly.
Therefore, there is a common interest of both countries in this particular infrastructure and there is a plan for the future, so that the American LNG, after being gasified in Revithoussa, can then be channeled into pipelines and the vertical corridor and even reach Ukraine.
“This is an ambitious plan that the two ministers are discussing,” state broadcaster ERT reported.
Bad idea! Greece goes from reliance on Russia to reliance on the USA and its foreign policy. Greece has the potential to be an autonomous leader in solar and wind energy supply. It could also use renewable energy to split Hydrogen from sea water allowing it to provide the gas for environmentally friendly fuel cells.