Greece’s new horizons in the gas market – Q&A with Sotirios Bravos, DESFA’s Chief Commercial Officer

Sotirios Bravos will be one of the speakers at the Budapest LNG Summit, to be held on 14 April.

With the partial shutdown and restructuring of Russian gas supplies and the opening of the Alexandroupolis LNG terminal, Greece’s role in regional energy delivery has become more significant. At the same time, we have also seen an increase in the country’s own gas demand. In this context, DESFA is planning further network and capacity developments starting this year. We asked Sotirios Bravos, DESFA’s Chief Commercial Officer, about the company’s plans and experiences.

Alexandroupolis started its operations on the 1st of October 2024 and has received four cargoes so far (about one terawatt-hour each), while further shipments are expected.

The terminal contributed significantly to the restart of the exports to Bulgaria, which were quite low in the first 10 months of the previous year (2024). It transported about 3.7 terawatt hours so far and it plays a key role in ensuring that shipments to the north continue smoothly.

Revithoussa received even more. At the beginning of 2024, LNG demand and production were quite limited compared to what had been booked, but we have been experiencing a recovery since October 2024.

At that time, LNG was the second-largest import source for our grid, but since December 2024 and into the first quarter of 2025, it has become the largest. Revithoussa is continuously supplying the network, and together with Alexandroupolis, accounts for about 50 per cent of the gas injected in our transmission network in Q1 2025.

The recovery is also linked to the increased demand in Greece, primarily driven by power production. Gas power plants’ consumption grew by around 50 per cent during the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2024, resulting in a total rise of 35 per cent.

We have also increased exports compared to 2024, and the percentage is quite remarkable: 376 per cent. However, in absolute terms, the growth is not as significant: it’s about 3.5 TWh more, as exports were quite low at the beginning of 2024, around 280-290 GWh.

In Greece, we expect an increase in demand. New power plants are being built in the northern part of the country: an 860-megawatt combined cycle unit has completed its test operations, and another unit of the same capacity is being built near Alexandroupolis. Plans are also in place for two more units of similar capacity, one in Thessaloniki and another in central Greece, close to Larisa.

Over the last few months, Greece has become a net exporter of electricity, and it seems that power production companies are interested in further expanding their production capacity through gas. Additionally, our distribution companies are developing their networks in new areas like Patras, Ioannina and Florina, some of which will be supplied by small-scale LNG installations.

In our network, about 39 per cent of the gas is imported through Bulgaria (most probably Russian), while 11 per cent is Azeri, delivered through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline. Regarding LNG over the last 15 months, the largest share has been supplied by the US, followed by Russia at about 10 per cent. Until September last year, three Russian cargoes arrived at Revithoussa; in 2025, there haven’t been any. Cargoes from Norway, Algeria, and Nigeria, have also been delivered during that period.

I do expect it, especially if we assume that Russian gas has completely stopped on some routes. Even if Serbia continues receiving the same amount of gas as it does now, we will still need to cover a demand of 50 to 60 terawatt hours within and outside of Greece, requiring additional capacity. At the same time, there is also a possibility that Turkey will increase its exports to the Balkans.

Within the first half of this year, we will complete the construction of a compressor station in Komotini, which will increase the capacity of ICGB from 3 bcma to 5 bcma by ensuring a delivery pressure of 70 bar. By the end of the year, our compressor station in Ampelia, in central Greece, will also be completed. This will increase the capacity of the Sidirokastro interconnection point with Bulgartransgaz in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria from 2 bcm to 3 bcm. This means that by early 2026, if ICGB also completes its planned investments, Greece’s export capacity towards Bulgaria will increase from approximately 5 bcm (including TAP) to 8 bcm per year.

Meanwhile, we are building a new pipeline branch in our network that will allow us to provide firm capacity to ICGB. Currently, only users of the Alexandroupolis FSRU can supply gas to ICGB. This new 213-kilometre-long pipeline, fully hydrogen-compatible, is expected to be ready by 2027.

Additionally, we are constructing a pipeline to North Macedonia together with Nomagas, and there are also plans for an interconnector between North Macedonia and Serbia. This will enable gas flows from the Greek terminals towards Hungary via Serbia, offering an alternative route to the existing ones.

We plan to build a dedicated pipeline parallel to the main pipeline of our natural gas system, which will be interconnected with the Bulgarian pipeline leading to Sofia. Last autumn, we launched a call for interest in hydrogen capacity, which resulted in interest for around 80 GWh per day – a significant amount.

The target market is Germany, and our studies have shown that building a pipeline from Greece to supply German industries with green hydrogen is financially viable. Of course, we need a solid regulatory framework for that, along with production investments to be realized in both Greece and Bulgaria. But we believe in this, and we are confident that hydrogen is the future.