And yes , just as it became clear Greece would need a second bailout before the first one was completed...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/24/us-greece-juncker-idUSTRE81N20Q20120224

(Reuters) - The head of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said on Friday he could not rule out that Greece may need a third bailout.

Euro zone finance ministers struck a deal on Tuesday for a second bailout program for Greece that includes new financing of 130 billion euros and aims to cut Greece's debt to 121 percent of GDP by 2020.

Asked in a television interview if he could be sure Greece would not need a third bailout, Juncker said: "You cannot really exclude that, although we should not have as a starting assumption that a third program will be (needed)."

"We made it clear last Tuesday in Brussels that we are standing ready to support Greece even beyond the time period of this program but I have good reasons to believe that we should now not engage ourselves in a debate on a 'maybe' third program. We should now ... implement the second one," he said, interviewed by David Frost on Al Jazeera.

Asked about some experts' view that a Greek default is inevitable, Juncker said: "I don't see that Greece would go for a default."

The euro zone was doing everything to avoid a disorderly default by Greece, which would have had "tragic consequences, not only for Greece, but for the whole euro area as such," he said.

On whether Greece would succeed in staying in the euro zone, Juncker said: "You can never exclude a new crisis although I do consider that, being at the epicenter of the global threat, we are slowly regaining safe territory."

Under the agreement, private sector holders of Greek debt will take losses of 53.5 percent on the nominal value of their bonds.

However, Juncker said he believed private creditors would lend to Greece again.

"As the private sector and the official sector now can envisage the Greek future and the future of the euro area with some optimism, I don't believe that private sector representatives will step away from Greece," he said.

Juncker said he was "satisfied" with the worldwide reaction to the deal on Greece struck this week. Financial markets had reacted in a "proper way" and "things have improved", he said.

"We were not really rejoicing when we were concluding the deal. Nobody was dancing on the table ... We had to deliver in order to restore stability in Greece and credibility around Greece," he said.

and as Greece leads to Portugal , Spain and Italy........

Bond swap could pile pressure on eurozone: S&P

25 Feb 2012

The European Central Bank's decision to exempt itself from taking losses on its Greek bonds gives its senior status in the bond market and may push up borrowing costs of other debt-strained eurozone countries, Standard and Poor's said on Friday. The ECB and the 17 eurozone central banks made cosmetic changes to the 62 billion euros worth of bonds they own this week to avoid being pulled into Greece's debt reduction deal, which will see private investors lose well over half their money. S&P, which carried out a mass downgrade of nine eurozone states last month, said the ECB's move was another blow for the bloc's weaker countries, changing the ECB's status at least in this instance "from implicit super-senior creditor to an explicit one." "We believe that this development (seniority of ECB) could further weaken the prospects of peripheral eurozone sovereigns currently receiving official funding to regain the ability to access the capital markets and could raise borrowing rates of those sovereigns still accessing the primary markets," it said in a statement. S&P downgraded several eurozone countries after it was established in March last year that the permanent European rescue fund ESM would have preferred status over other creditors. While it opted not to follow suit this time around, it said it put further pressure on weaker parts of the eurozone. "The prospect of effective subordination may lead investors to expect higher coupons in order to compensate for this additional risk, which in turn may have negative consequences for a sovereign's debt sustainability and therefore may increase the likelihood of a sovereign default." S&P's criticism appears to be backed up by the increase this week in the level of reward investors demand to hold Portuguese debt. (for graphics click r.reuters.com/hyb65p link.reuters.com/mac36s) In contrast, however, Italian and Spanish yields how shown no reaction, although both face a tough couple of months of issuance which is likely to test the recent improvement in sentiment towards them. Other rating agencies have also raised concerns about the ECB's Greek bond move. Fitch's Greek analyst Paul Rawkins told Reuters this week that there would be an inevitable read-across from the decision, and although the market expected the ECB's move, it was still too early to gauge the true impact. S&P also warned that the decision not to take losses on its Greek bonds could also blunt the potency of the ECB's emergency bond buying programme. That is unlikely to concern the ECB at present. The bank has wound down its purchases over the last month and a half and in a symbolic move bought nothing at all last week. (Reuters) we watch Greece struggle to find oil -  at what price and how are they paying for it ..... Greece, traders work on deals to replace Iranian oil 25 Feb 2012 Major traders are in talks with Greece to supply crude oil and help the country cut reliance on Iranian oil ahead of a European ban, in a sign that they are happier about Greece's creditworthiness following a second debt bailout. Greece turned to Iran as a supplier of last resort last year despite pressure from Washington and Brussels to end trade as part of a campaign against Tehran's nuclear programme that the West says is for arms and Iran says is for energy. Greece relied on Iran for more than half of its oil imports during some months last year after traders and oil majors pulled the plug on supplies and banks refused to provide financing for fear that Athens would default on its debt. But the outlook has changed after Athens clinched a landmark second bailout programme on Tuesday for new financing of 130 billion euros. Pressure is rising to cut imports of Iranian oil ahead of July, when a EU embargo on Iranian supplies comes into force. Traders told Reuters that Swiss-based Totsa, the trading arm of French oil major Total, and trading house Mercuria were in separate negotiations with Greek refiner Hellenic Petroleum to help it replace Iranian crude. Glencore, a leading Swiss-based commodities trader and one of the few that conducted business with Greece during the debt crisis, may also boost supplies, trading sources said. Hellenic would pay back the traders with refined products, which could then be sold in Greece or abroad. Hellenic, Total, Glencore and Mercuria declined to comment. Two industry source said talks were at advanced stages. A third industry source said negotiations were at an early stage. "If something were to happen, it would be unlikely before summer," one source said. Lingering debt fears Hellenic acknowledged earlier this week that it was buying oil from Iran and paying for the shipments later, terms known in industry jargon as open credit terms. But the refiner also said that replacing Iranian oil would be "easy" with supplies from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Russia. Traders expect the terms offered by alternative oil suppliers to be far less generous, as many are still unable to enter into agreements with Greece because of the risk associated with the country's debt. Part of the reason for swapping crude oil for products is that Hellenic is unable to obtain letters of credit from banks because of lingering default fears. "They have liabilities and banks could come in and demand payment," said a London-based trading head who decided not to enter talks with Hellenic, saying it was too risky for his firm. However, Greece's second bailout this week provides reassurance that any crude supplied to a refinery would not be caught up in a messy national default. Hellenic, which has 350 million euros of debt maturing this year and 1.3 billion in 2013, has started refinancing discussions with banks. It said it hoped that the bailout deal would allow Greece to return to markets and ease Greek companies' refinancing strains. Oil dependence Greece, which has no domestic production, relies on oil imports and in some months last year Iranian oil's share soared to more than 50 percent as supply from other places dropped. By comparison, in 2010 Greece imported 46 percent of its crude from Russia and 16 percent from Iran. Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan provided 10 percent each, Libya 9 percent and Iraq 7 percent, according to data from the European Union. Russian and Saudi oil is seen by traders as a likely replacement for Iranian oil as part of a deal to exchange crude for products. Greece's four refineries, belonging to Hellenic and Motor Oil, together can process around 400,000 barrels per day but that figure has fallen in recent months due to upgrades and maintenance. Iran has threatened to retaliate to EU sanctions by fully shutting off supplies to the bloc ahead of the embargo. It said this week it has already suspended deliveries to UK and French companies. Greek petroleum products used to be among Europe's cheapest before the country's debt crisis. But since a 2010 bailout agreement with the EU and IMF to stave off a chaotic default, they have become among the most expensive. "It makes sense that they could do something like that as they don't have to issue letters of credit for the crude, and of course, Greece does have the refining capacity, and overcapacity even, as consumption has dropped here, so this would be a win-win situation," said an oil shipper based in Greece. (Reuters)