Mitsotakis after EU Council focuses on surging energy costs – We proposed greater natgas storage capacity; buying as a bloc

Skyrocketing energy costs – as expected – dominated sessions of the European Council in Brussels, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told reporters on Friday afternoon.

He also detailed the proposals tabled by the Greek side, as rising energy costs, especially natural gas and its derivatives, are causing heightened concern in the country ahead of the winter season.

“Our country proposed an increase in the storage capacity for natural gas, as well as to purchase natural gas as a bloc, so we can increase our negotiating leverage vis-a-vis suppliers,” he said, adding that such a natgas storage project has recently commenced in the greater Kavala region of northern Greece.

He also answered in the affirmative when asked if Athens supported the use of nuclear power by EU countries, adding however, that the high seismic activity in the wider means that Greece will not follow this route.

In combining energy issues with geopolitics, Mitsotakis said he briefed his EU colleagues about very recent agreements between Greece, Egypt and Cyprus to connect electricity grids between Europe and North Africa, as well as over an ambitious project to build a natgas pipeline from the eastern Mediterranean to mainland Greece, with the prospect of then linking up with pipelines headed to the rest of Europe.

In the meantime, he said, greater quantities of LNG can be supplied through two major terminals on mainland Greece, namely, the Revythousa terminal off the port of Piraeus and the new FSRU unit near the extreme northeast port of Alexandroupolis.