US Encourages Greece to Diversify Its Energy

The United States is encouraging Greece to move forward with a pipeline bringing natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe via Greece, rather than setting its hopes on a different project that would pipe Russian gas through Turkey. The U.S. State Department's special envoy on energy affairs, Amos Hochstein, said Friday he had discussed energy issues with a number of Greek officials during a visit to Athens and that the two sides "agreed on more than we disagreed." Greece's left-wing government has expressed interest in a Moscow-backed pipeline project dubbed Turkish Stream that would bring natural gas across the Black Sea to Turkey and from there to Europe, potentially through Greece. The U.S. has been encouraging the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which will take Azeri gas from the Caspian Sea to Italy.