US eyes stronger energy ties with Greece, says interior secretary

The United States wants to expand its energy ties with Greece, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said during a visit to Athens on Thursday, as the Trump administration works to further reduce Russia's oil and gas supplies to Europe. 

Burgum has been in Europe this week aiming to seal energy supply deals, which the U.S. hopes will strengthen its influence in the region while weakening Russia's.

On Wednesday, Greece announced that a consortium including oil major Chevron had bid to explore for natural gas in its waters.

"The Trump administration has a couple of goals around energy and one of those is energy abundance, so energy to our friends and our allies so they do not have to buy from our adversaries," Burgum told Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a meeting in Athens. 

A ban on seaborne Russian crude oil has cut the EU's Russian oil imports by 90%, but Hungary and Slovakia still import via a pipeline. Europe is expected to purchase about 13% of its gas from Russia this year, though that is down from 45% before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, EU data shows.

The U.S. has pressured the EU to accelerate the phase out Russian fossil fuels to reduce funds for Moscow's war chest. Part of that push is to offer more of its abundance of shale gas and oil reserves in export deals. 

Greece's imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas increased by 95% in the first half of this year.

A controversial maritime deal signed in 2019 has strained Greece's relations with Libya and Turkey. However, some of the blocks in which Chevron is interested are offshore Crete near one of the disputed areas.

Greece has taken that as tacit U.S. support for its maritime boundaries.

"It's a very interesting coincidence that you come a day after Chevron officially submits interest to start exploratory work in areas south of Crete, confirming the sovereign rights of the Hellenic Republic in that area," Mitsotakis told Burgum.