Greece turning into gas hub - KATHIMERINI

23.JAN.2022 • 10:29
Chryssa Liaggou

Greece will add two more liquefied natural gas terminals for storage and gasification, thereby strengthening its gas supply security and obtaining a strong role in transit by making the most of its strategic location and its new corridors for the supply of Europe and the Balkans.

Greek energy groups want to make the most of the opportunity of gas being the bridge fuel on the way to clean energy, and of Balkan countries’ need to diversify their sources and not be so reliant on Gazprom. They have therefore designed and are promoting infrastructure for their entry into the Greek LNG system. The fuel will use Greece’s pipelines (the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria and its connectors, and the plan for the interconnection with North Macedonia) to reach the neighboring countries and reduce their dependence on Turkey, which besides hosting pipelines has also invested in LNG infrastructure, making it a hub for Southeast Europe.

Mytilineos Group overtakes DEPA as major LNG importer in 2019 - KATHIMERINI

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9, 2019

Private Greek industrial group Mytilineos has overtaken incumbent DEPA to become the country’s biggest LNG importer this year, the first time in history that an independent company has knocked the state-owned company from the top spot, ICIS an information platform on petrochemicals and specifically on energy issues, fertilisers and other commodities said in a report.

Mytilineos imported over 370,000 tonnes of LNG from January to July, or 39 percent of the national total supplies, according to LNG Edge. DEPA took 273,000 tonnes, or 29 percent.

DEPA’s market share was 92 percent last year, and has never previously fallen below 50 pct. The shift indicates the progress made in one of the last countries in the European Union to liberalize its gas market.

The market began opening back in 2005, but momentum picked up from 2018 when the retail market was fully liberalized, leaving consumers free to choose their supplier. DEPA has been losing customers ever since.

With demand from the electricity power sector as well as industrial needs in aluminium manufacturing, Mytilineos is at the forefront of the market.

Possible Delek pull back over interim gas supply | Cyprus Mail

August 6, 2014 

Leviathan gas field

By Elias Hazou

ISRAEL’S Delek group, a strong contender for supplying Cyprus with natural gas, may now have to take a backseat to other bidders due to complications in its Israel operations.

The tender put out by Cyprus’ Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) calls for the supply of between 0.7 and 0.95 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually to the Cypriot market through two delivery routes.

One route will begin supplying gas in early 2016 and the other no later than the second half of 2017.
Delek proposed the construction of a pipeline from the neighbouring Leviathan field to Cyprus.

But Noble Energy, Delek’s partner in Leviathan, announced recently it will delay taking the final decision on developing the field.

Noble had been expected to announce its development plan for Leviathan in September, with the date now pushed back for an indeterminate amount of time. Under the previous timetable, Leviathan was believed to be coming online in 2017.

The delay means that Leviathan gas will likely not be available by the time Cyprus expects deliveries – potentially throwing into question Delek’s whole bid.

Earlier this month, DEFA announced it had finished assessing the commercial and financial proposals submitted to it, and would commence direct negotiations with “a number of bidders.”

Reports say that four bidders are still in the running: Dutch energy firm Vitol; Greek conglomerate M&M made up of the Mytilineos & Vardinoyiannis (Motor Oil) groups in cooperation with Dutch giant Trafigura;
a conglomerate under ‘Socar’ – the state liquefied gas company of Azerbaijan; and Delek.

Reports say that the prices quoted to DEFA are higher than those desired, but that there is a window for bringing them down during the negotiations.

Cypriot authorities are understood to have set a purchase target of $12 per million BTU. The offers submitted by the bidders reportedly hover around $13 or $13.5 per million BTU.

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