Greece Buys Two LNG Cargoes to Replace Lost Russia, Caspian Gas

By Maher Chmaytelli

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Greece bought two liquefied natural gas cargoes from the spot market as Russia’s price dispute with Ukraine halted pipeline deliveries for a tenth day, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Greece is now completely relying on ships carrying LNG for its gas needs, said three people on condition of anonymity, citing company policy. Greece’s supply from Azerbaijan through a pipeline across Turkey stopped about a week ago as Turkey is also short of Russian gas, they said.

The public relations department of state-run Public Gas Corp., known as Depa, declined to immediately respond to questions by phone. Depa is 65 percent owned by the government with the balance held by Hellenic Petroleum SA, the country’s biggest refiner.

Greece may buy more shipments of LNG as Russian supply is not certain to resume within the next few days, the people said. They declined to say which country had supplied the two shipments already purchased.

LNG is gas cooled to a liquid to allow its transportation on ships to places too distant for pipeline connections. It is returned to its gaseous form on arrival at import terminals.

Greece imports its LNG through Depa’s regasification terminal on the islet of Revithoussa, west of Athens.

Greece typically buys LNG from Algeria. In 2007, it got 60 percent of its LNG from Algeria and the rest from Egypt, according to statistics compiled by BP Plc.

Domestic demand at this time of the year runs at about 13 million cubic meters a day, according to figures published last year by Desfa, the operator of the Greek gas grid. Supply from Russia usually meets about 8 million cubic meters a day of consumption, with the rest coming through Turkey and from LNG imports.

Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Macedonia were cut at the Ukrainian-Romanian border, Bulgaria’s Energy and Economy Ministry said on Jan. 6, following a dispute between Russia and Ukraine over prices and transit fees.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maher Chmaytelli in Cyprus at mchmaytelli@bloomberg.net or ;