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Greece to Speed up Gas Exploration to Help Replace Russian Gas, Says PM

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during the inauguration of a solar power park , the largest project of renewable energy sources in Greece, at the village of Vilera, near Kozani, northern Greece, on April 6, 2022. (AFP)
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during the inauguration of a solar power park , the largest project of renewable energy sources in Greece, at the village of Vilera, near Kozani, northern Greece, on April 6, 2022. (AFP)
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Greece to Speed up Gas Exploration to Help Replace Russian Gas, Says PM

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during the inauguration of a solar power park , the largest project of renewable energy sources in Greece, at the village of Vilera, near Kozani, northern Greece, on April 6, 2022. (AFP)
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during the inauguration of a solar power park , the largest project of renewable energy sources in Greece, at the village of Vilera, near Kozani, northern Greece, on April 6, 2022. (AFP)

Greece will speed up gas exploration projects in concert with private investors, its prime minister said on Tuesday, as it cuts its reliance on Russian energy and looks to become an energy hub in Europe.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and fears over gas supply in Europe have exacerbated a jump in prices, forcing the European Union to seek ways to reduce its reliance on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and to end it completely by 2027.

Greece, which covers about 40% of its annual energy needs with Russian gas, has produced small quantities of oil in the past and has attempted to explore its hydrocarbon potential.

But low crude prices in previous years, a shift to green energy and lack of political will have stalled its exploration plans.

"Accelerating the exploitation of the country's national energy resources will allow us, if we are lucky and we have exploitable natural gas fields, to boost our energy independence, our energy security," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

Mitsotakis, who met the country's hydrocarbons commission and energy industry executives on Tuesday, added that Greece aims to have a clear idea by 2023 on whether it has gas reserves it could tap, while indications of potential gas reserves so far made the government "optimistic".

This acceleration, he said, will not undermine the country's policy to ramp up renewables and cut carbon emissions by 55% by 2030 in line with EU's climate change targets.

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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Is ‘Pressing the Gas Pedal’ on Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Chief Says 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)

Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, adding that Iran's recently announced acceleration in enrichment was starting to take effect.

Grossi said last month that Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would "dramatically" accelerate enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons grade.

Western powers called the step a serious escalation and said there was no civil justification for enriching to that level and that no other country had done so without producing nuclear weapons. Iran has said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

"Before it was (producing) more or less seven kilograms (of uranium enriched to up to 60%) per month, now it's above 30 or more than that. So I think this is a clear indication of an acceleration. They are pressing the gas pedal," Grossi told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kg of uranium enriched to that level is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

Still, he said it would take time to install and bring online the extra centrifuges - machines that enrich uranium - but that the acceleration was starting to happen.

"We are going to start seeing steady increases from now," he said.

Grossi has called for diplomacy between Iran and the administration of new US President Donald Trump, who in his first term, pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that had imposed strict limits on Iran's atomic activities. That deal has since unraveled.

"One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition, so to speak, to have a conversation and perhaps move into some form of an agreement," he said.

Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at Davos that Iran must make a first step towards improving relations with countries in the region and the United States by making it clear it does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.