Argus launches world’s first Greek natural gas prices

London, 9 December 2024

Global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus has launched the first ever daily price assessments for Greece's natural gas market. The prices will bring greater transparency to Europe's gas market at a time of increased volatility, and when large price differentials are opening up between different parts of Europe.

Gas trading in Greece — and southeast Europe as a whole — has grown strongly in recent years, because of infrastructure buildout and changing European gas flows.

Greece started up its second LNG terminal in October 2024, which allows it to service the import needs of the wider region. The country is also a crossroads for gas moving through Europe, both south-north and east-west. The Trans Adriatic Pipeline carries Azeri gas through Greece to Italy, and a Greece-Bulgaria interconnector began running in October 2023. Southeast Europe also continues to receive Russian gas through the Turkish Stream pipeline, in contrast to northwest Europe, which stopped receiving Russian pipeline imports in 2022.

A recent drop in Europe’s LNG supply as a result of strengthening global demand, coupled with spikes in gas-fired power generation, is contributing to larger locational price differences across Europe. Greece can become a premium market when physical supply bottlenecks limit its ability to take more pipeline gas. But at times of weak local demand, the country can also have a supply surplus, pushing its prices to a discount to those for its neighbours to the north and east.  

“The addition of new gas price transparency for Greece further broadens our comprehensive European gas coverage and comes on top of our recent launch of Danish and Romanian prices,” Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said. “We have engaged closely with market participants to develop these Greek prices at an exciting time for southeast European gas trading.”  

The new assessments are priced in €/MWh and are based at Greece’s virtual balancing point. They are published in the Argus European Natural Gas report. Argus also publishes delivered LNG prices for Greece and Turkey