Greece doubles Venture Global LNG offtake to 1.4bcm as Balkan resale push widens

Greece doubles Venture Global LNG offtake to 1.4bcm as Balkan resale push widens Atlantic-SEE lifts its 20-year US contract to 1m tonnes a year from 2030, deepening a supply chain aimed at Russia-reliant southeastern Europe. Greek Atlantic-SEE LNG Trade has agreed to double the capacity in its 20-year supply contract with US exporter Venture Global to 1m tonnes a year, or 1.36bcm, from 0.5m tonnes (0.7bcm), the companies said late on Thursday (2026-06-11). The expanded volumes start from 2030.⁵ The move extends a US-anchored gas chain into a corner of Europe still heavily exposed to Russian pipeline supply. Atlantic-SEE, a joint venture between construction group Aktor and Greece's state gas supplier Depa Commercial, intends to resell most of the gas across the Balkans rather than burn it domestically, part of a corridor pitched as an alternative to Russian pipeline routes.^4,3 That regional ambition is visible in the framework already signed. The November deal with Venture Global covers 4bcm a year from 2030, of which 1bcm is earmarked for Albania and 0.5bcm for Bosnia-Herzegovina. The doubling announced on Thursday (2026-06-11) sits inside that wider total.⁴ Nikolaos Exarchou, who chairs Aktor and runs Atlantic-SEE, said the company expects to conclude talks with Romania by the end of summer, lifting committed supply to 3.7bcm a year. If deals with Bulgaria and Ukraine follow later in 2026, he said total volumes could reach as much as 8bcm.⁴ Greece is positioning itself as a transit point, not just a buyer. TSO Desfa reported that first-quarter LNG imports rose more than a third year on year even as domestic demand fell, with the country nearly quadrupling re-exports to neighbouring markets.¹ The underlying figures confirm the shift. Total Greek gas demand rose 18.5% on the year to 26.42 TWh, or 2.4bcm, driven by a near four-fold jump in exports to 5.99 TWh, mostly regasified LNG. LNG made up around 56% of imports, which climbed to 14.90 TWh from 10.96 TWh a year earlier.¹ But securing the molecules to feed that ambition is getting harder. Exarchou said long-term US LNG deals have become more difficult to lock down after the Iran war upended the global market, with buyers competing harder for the same American cargoes.⁴ The pricing backdrop explains the squeeze. JKM Asian LNG was assessed at $18.92, a level that pulls flexible US cargoes east and forces Atlantic buyers to pay up or commit early through long-dated contracts. Locking in 2030 volumes now is a hedge against exactly that competition.⁴ Supply is set to grow. The Energy Industries Council estimates North and Central America could approve final investment decisions on 12 more LNG export projects in 2026, totalling 74m tonnes a year, spurred in part by Qatari supply disruptions. More liquefaction coming through the early 2030s is what makes long contracts like Atlantic-SEE's bankable for an exporter like Venture Global.² Not everything points one way. Greek domestic demand is falling, so the commercial logic rests on re-export economics holding up across Albania, Bosnia and Romania. Each volume is a separate negotiation, and only the Albania and Bosnia allocations are firm so far.^1,4 For now the firm commitments are modest against the headline ambition: 1.4bcm doubled on Thursday (2026-06-11), inside a 4bcm framework, against a stated goal of 8bcm. The next marker is whether Romania signs by summer's end as Exarchou expects, and whether further US offtake can be secured at all if Asian buyers keep the long-term market tight.⁴