Natural gas consumption in Greece rose by 25.16% in the first nine months of the year, reaching 47.65 terawatt hours (TWh) from 38.07 TWh in the corresponding period for 2023.

GATES OF ENTRY

The entry point at Sidirokastro was the main gateway for natural gas imports into the Greek market, showing an increase of 62.67% compared to the first nine months of 2023, reaching 26.32 TWh from 16.18 TWh and surpassing the entry point at Revithoussa, which recorded a 52.25% decrease in imported volumes compared to the same period last year. According to DESFA's data, the total quantity transported through the National Natural Gas Transmission System (NNGTS) decreased by 8.14%, approaching 48.31 TWh, from 52.59 TWh in the same period last year, which is mainly due to the 95.45% decrease in gas exports through NNGTS (0.66 TWh compared to 14.52 TWh in 2023). 

IMPORTED QUANTITIES Decrease 

However, despite the increase in domestic consumption, there was a 7.90% decrease in the total imported quantities of natural gas, mainly due to the decrease in the quantities unloaded at the Revithoussa LNG Terminal. In particular, 17 tankers from 4 different countries unloaded 12.34 TWh of LNG at Revithoussa. Most of the LNG unloaded came from the USA, reaching 8.02 TWh, which corresponds to 64.99% of the total LNG imports. Next in line are imports from Russia (6.27 TWh), but showing a decrease of 54.39% compared to the same period last year. Following them were Algeria (0.48 TWh) and Norway (0.98 TWh).

174 LNG TRUCKS

In parallel, regarding the operation of the LNG Truck Loading service, which offers a flexible solution for the road transport of significant quantities of LNG to off-grid areas and users, 174 LNG trucks have been unloaded, handling 7,787.00 m3 of LNG or 51,278.15 MWh of energy equivalent in the period January–September 2024.  Regarding the contribution of the other entry points, the quantity imported from the entry point at New Meridian, via the TAP pipeline, remained almost stable (9.61 TWh), showing a marginal decrease of 0.52% compared to 2023.

CONSUMERS

Regarding the categories of gas consumers, power generators continue to record the highest consumption, covering 69.52% of domestic demand with 33.13 TWh out of a total of 47.65 TWh. Natural gas consumption by industries and CNG stations directly connected to the ESMNG was recorded at 87.93% higher than in the first nine months of 2023, reaching 6.54 TWh, which corresponds to almost 13.73% of domestic demand. On the contrary, consumption (7.98 TWh) recorded by distribution networks decreased by 2.33%, covering 16.75% of total demand.