ATHENS – Ensuring that there is adequate energy for the country, as well as lower energy prices, are top priorities for the government, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday during his visit to the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal facilities on the island of Revithoussa.

“We are striving to achieve as low an energy price as possible for consumers, households and businesses,” the prime minister said.

He noted that the problem of skyrocketing energy prices was imported and therefore demanded a joint European response but pledged that the government will continue to support energy consumers regardless, even if the EU does not reach a decision, through a subsidy scheme that will continue in May as well.

“I want to once again repeat that we are facing an unprecedented situation with an explosion in the price of natural gas. This problem is imported. It is a problem that concerns the whole of Europe and, because of this, I have personally fought for a European-wide response to a problem that is not strictly national but European,” Mitsotakis said.

The prime minister had earlier sailed around the island and was given a tour of the facilities of the Terminal by the CEO of the Natural Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA), Maria Rita Galli, where he spoke with staff and witnessed the operation of the terminal’s control centre.

“I want all Greeks to know that the Greek government is ready to take significant additional measures so as to absorb as high a percentage of the increase in electricity bills as is possible and permitted by fiscal margins,” the prime minister stressed.

Mitsotakis was accompanied by Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas, who referred to past as well as future infrastructure projects, to be carried out in the coming months, to increase the Terminal’s capacity, increase its ability to receive ships carrying LNG and how this will also increase Greece’s autonomy with respect to natural gas.

According to Galli, “this puts us in a much stronger position than before…we are working incessantly to not only preserve and guarantee 100 pct capacity at the Terminal station but to enhance this…as we are extending its capacity for regasification and to serve the needs of the market.”

Among others, DESFA is considering the additional of a floating storage unit to the existing facilities that will increase available capacity from 225,000 cubic metres to 380,000 cubic metres, while regasification capability will be increased by 12 pct.

In his remarks, the prime minister noted that the country must be ready to face even the worst scenario, such as a complete cessation in the supply of natural gas from Russia, adding that the LNG facility was crucial for ensuring a diversification of supply sources.

“Revithoussa in both its present form and its new upgraded form will play a crucial role in this planning,” Mitsotakis stressed, along with the planned regasification units in Alexandroupolis.