An interview was granted by the Chairman & CEO of the company Evangelos Mytilineos on CNBC and the Squawk Box show with journalists Geoff Cutmore and Steve Sedwick.
Mr. Mytilineos, after referring to the infrastructure that has been built in recent years making our country pivotal for Europe's energy security, he also spoke about the gas trading activity of MYTILINEOS, which is developing dynamically, since the company maintains the most slots at the LNG Terminal of Revythoussa.
He repeated his previous criticism of the European Union's handling of the energy costs of its industries and the risk of deindustrialization of Europe – particularly after the implementation of the US Inflation Control Act (IRA), while in his capacity as President of Eurometaux, he pledged to continue fighting to defend European energy-intensive industry.
Here is the transcript:
Greece has evolved into a gate for LNG for Europe / MYTILINEOS securing most slots and becoming a major gas trader in the SE
Steve Sedwick - Greece continues to rump up its LNG imports with the country’s gas operator announcing that all slot at the key regasification terminal at Revythousa have been booked up for the year. This, after imports surge last year namely from the US as Greece winds itself of its reliance on Russian energy. Not just Greece, all of Europe. Greece is now looking at building further floating storage regasification plants for 2024.
Now greek industrial group, MYTILINEOS – Energy & Metals was one of the first importers to secure an LNG shipment of over one TW/hour at Revythousa adding and agreed this month to receive a similar size shipment from its US American Partner Cheniere.
And now, Evangelos MYTILINEOS is the CEO and Chairman of MYTILINEOS – Energy & Metals and joins us now. Evangelos nice to see you.
EM – Nice to see you too.
Steve Sedwick - Your business has never been dull. It’s always been quite the epicenter of various storms but my goodness me, this could be an extraordinary opportunity for Greece and for your company as well because even before this horrendous war which is now into its second year, there was a lot going on in the eastern Mediterranean, a lot going on in north Africa as well, which make Greece potentially, along with other southern European countries, potentially the epicenter of new flows of energy into Europe as well. With the war, it is exacerbated the problems that Europe has had – having. And actually made Greece potentially a very exciting place as the import destination for a lot of energy coming from elsewhere.
EM - Very much so! Greece at the moment has in operation one FSRU in Revythousa as you said, which is very close to Athens and its import is fully booked for last year, this year and I’m sure for the next couple of years, at least. On top of that we have 2 or 3 more FSRUs which have been built or under mature permitting stage. So yes that’s what the market see because it’s not only the Greek needs, it is also the greeks further up north, north Macedonia, Bulgaria, other places even further north. So Greece is now becoming a gate of LNG for all over the world.
Advantages of Greece over Italy for the European energy security/Evangelos Mytilineos on Greece’s enhanced role for energy security
Steve Sedwick - Why Greece rather than Italy -my friends are very busy with their own infrastructure growth, our friends over in Poland, in Germany- everyone’s thinking now about their terminals to bring LNG and alternative energy from Russians into Europe. Why Greece and why do you think has a unique position?
EM - Greece has a unique position because it has easier access up north. Italy is already a very big market; it brings directly by pipeline from Africa many years now. But up north it’s western Europe and it has its own infrastructures and so on. In Greece it is different and infrastructure or places as Bulgaria, North Macedonia, up north Romania even further up much more needed on the eastern side of Europe, southeast and East. So that’s why Greece is becoming so popular and so many volumes are needed to cover the requirements.
I will continue to be critical towards EU institutions
Geoff Cutmore - You’ve been incredibly critical of the lack of institutional support at an EU level for heavy uses of energy. You’ve talked about the closing of smeltings, I think I read a piece in POLITICO where you describe the EU approaches suicidal, given what’ s going on. Would you say the same thing about the EU’s response so far to the inflation reduction act in the US which appears also to be a back door route to subsidising rivals to European companies?
EM - Absolutely I would, and I intend to do it very much so, next month in Brussels where the European commission is supposed on March 14th to announce the green act in order to face the IRA problems that arrive from the US. I think the US has done the right thing in this case and Europeans again are lugging behind. It’ s a totally different approach to make everybody understand what we’re talking about: The American government is giving a carrot to the companies in order to become green, to invest green and so on. On the contrary the European Authorities, they penalize if you continue your old practices. So, on the one hand we have a gift from the government and on the other hand we have a penalty to the companies, and of course European companies are preferred to have the present of the US government rather than the penalty of the European authorities. That is very simply put the difference between the IRA and the European actions so far.