Energy thriller for Greece!

The Iran Petroleum ministry denies that Iran has decided to stop oil exports to six European countries including Greece.

“We refute this information… If there is such a decision, it will be announced by the Supreme National Security Council of Iran”, said the ministry spokesman of Iran’s oil agency to Reuters.

Earlier today, the English-speaking Iranian TV channel (Press TV) had imparted the information that Tehran is stopping its oil exports to France, Portugal, Greece, Holland and Spain.

According to protothema.gr’s information, until today there has not been an Iranian parliament plan adopted, according to which oil will stop being sold to European countries.

Nevertheless, Greece has not avoided the risk of facing a possible energy crisis. That’s because Greece is dependent on Iran’s oil imports and according to an EU decision there has been an embargo on Iranian oil since this summer.

It should be noted that according to information, the oil accounts for more than half of Greece’s energy needs, with representatives of domestic refineries appearing - at this time - reassuring, recognizing however that it is possible that problems will be created if the decision of Tehran is applied long-term.

At the same time, however, due to the poor weather conditions in the region, the supply of natural gas to our country through the Greek-Turkish pipeline has stopped, while consumption is at historically high levels, with an average daily consumption of 230000 megawatt hours of electricity per week.

The consumption is supported by the DESFA warehouses on Revithousa island, as well as the flow of gas supplied through the Russian pipeline and ending up in the Greco-Bulgarian borders. By popular demand DESFA, the manager of the national gas system, called for cuts in power and already the PPC has put the plant in Keratsini offline, Unit 3 in Lavrio and partially Unit 4, while the elpedison plant in Thisvi Voiotia has also been taken offline.

Through his decision, Vice minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change Mr. Yiannis Maniatis has requested that electricity not be exported. The problem was created as an LNG shipment to Revithousa was cancelled, arriving from Algeria on DEPA’s behalf.

The arrival had originally been scheduled for Monday, then was postponed for Wednesday; however, information indicates that the arrival of the ship was finally postponed for Saturday afternoon.

Those responsible assert that there is no problem of cutting consumption of gas or electricity for households or businesses.