American liquefied natural gas (LNG) does not yet participate significantly in the energy supply of Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans: that fact could soon become a thing of the past. This turnaround in the region, which has been dependent on Siberian natural gas for decades, was announced last November by Kimberly Guilfoyle, the new US ambassador to Greece, a close friend of US President Donald Trump’s family. (https://en.protothema.gr/2025/11/13/kimberly-guilfoyle-greece-can-become-the-energy-hub-that-will-help-us-counter-russian-and-chinese-interests/).
“Greece will become an energy hub,” emphasized Ambassador Guilfoyle in the fall. “We want to show that Greece can become an energy hub that will help us oppose Russian and Chinese interests. What we are looking for is energy independence, which will strengthen national defence and national security,” Guilfoyle added on that occasion. As a reminder, Guilfoyle mentioned the Greek port of Alexandroupolis (on the photo), about 300 kilometres east of Thessaloniki, last July in her presentation before the US Senate (https://greekherald.com.au/news/kimberly-guilfoyle-vows-to-deepen-us-greece-ties-in-defense-energy-and-trade/).
The strategic importance of the port of Alexandroupolis—the last city in Europe on the way to the Orient, in the new phase of development of energy cooperation between the USA, Greece and Europe, was exclusively confirmed to the Belgrade “Politics” at the beginning of January by Konstantinos Sifnaios, vice president and CEO of “Gastrade” S.A., a Greek company for natural gas and construction-technical business founded in 2010, with the vision that the wider region cannot and should not depend on one source of energy or one energy route. (https://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/722149/srbija-ce-transportovati-tecni-gas-preko-aleksandrupolisa).
It is not surprising, therefore, that these days in Alexandroupolis, Ambassador Gilfoyle started an extensive tour of getting to know Greece on the ground (https://www.voria.gr/article/periodeies-ana-tin-ellada-xekina-i-gkilfoil-thessaloniki-kai-alexandroypoli-oi-protes).
Alexandroupolis was chosen as the starting point of the US Ambassador’s tour of Greece by no chance, since near the capital of the border area of Evros, there is a floating FSRU unit “Gastrade” from where the export of US LNG to markets in Ukraine and Bulgaria has already started via the “Vertical Corridor”.
In the meantime, a meeting regarding the Vertical Corridor expansion plans is scheduled at the headquarters of the US Department of Energy on February 24, which, according to announcements, will bring together regulators, network operators, companies from the private sector and, for the first time, representatives of the European Commission.
