The US, Greece and a swath of Balkan and eastern European countries have agreed to overhaul import regulations and tariffs to ease the import of American liquefied natural gas to the region, energy officials meeting in Washington said Tuesday.
A joint statement issued after the talks said that participants would “seek to enhance the resiliency of natural gas markets, taking full advantage of existing infrastructure while making additions, if needed, to increase deliveries.”
Energy ministers and representatives from Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Moldova, Ukraine, Croatia, Lithuania, Serbia, Bosnia and the US attended the meeting.
The statement said all countries involved “intend to work to increase gas market transparency, harmonize gas exchanges, promote efficient and cost-effective tariff frameworks, and mitigate, or where possible eliminate, regulations that will hinder gas imports, the construction of new gas infrastructure, and the long-term stability of natural gas trade.”
They also committed to “mobilize public and private sector financing including export credit agencies and multilateral financial institutions” to ensure the secure and affordable supply of natural gas throughout central and eastern Europe.
Greece has expressed strong backing for the so-called vertical corridor that would transport US LNG from the northeastern port of Alexandroupoli through the Balkans and Eastern Europe to Ukraine. One potential disadvantage of the project, which would use existing pipelines initially designed to carry Russian natural gas south, is seen as the high tariffs involved.