By Harry Floudopoulos
At a time when Europe is looking for new sources of gas supply in order to reduce and eventually end its dependence on Russian gas imports, the new geopolitical scenario is redefining the landscape around hydrocarbon exploration in our country. After all, it is clear that the new geopolitical data that have been formed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine “rewrite” the overall energy development of Europe, and therefore of our country.
In this context, the two public interventions of Prime Minister K. Mitsotakis are important, who initially made a first report on “exploitation of national gas fields with economic interest”, while on Wednesday followed a second report from the floor of parliament. “Our attention will return to the potential domestic gas fields west and south of Crete and the Ionian Sea. We owe first and foremost – and we will make specific announcements on this issue next week – to know what potential fields there are and if these are economically viable “said Mr. Mitsotakis.
What will be the content of the announcements?
Information wants to have been in contact with the companies involved in the survey in order to have a restart of the seismic survey program, in order to take advantage of the positive momentum. Especially for the two areas in the south and west of Crete, which seem to be of the greatest research interest, as the existing data are very limited, these surveys are expected to give a first answer to the question posed by Mr. Mitsotakis, ie what Potential deposits also exist if they are economically viable.
In order to understand the sizes, the sea plots near Crete have an area of 40 thousand square kilometers, which is the area of the Peloponnese. These areas have been granted for exploration and exploitation to the consortium Total (France), ExxonMobil (USA) and ELPE. Due to bureaucratic and other obstacles (appeals from environmental organizations) investigations have been frozen indefinitely.
And here is probably the second point of the announcements that are expected to be made by the government next week. That is, possibly as part of the effort to restart research programs, there may be an institutional intervention to facilitate research and address bureaucratic hurdles and delays. This is also a move of “goodwill” of the government, towards the investors, who will be asked to put their hands deep enough in their pockets in order to finance these costly and high-risk (in the sense that the chances of finding financially exploitable deposits are small) surveys.
In any case, the geopolitical shift in Europe and the decision to de-depend on Russian gas, combined with high energy prices, give additional impetus to any hopes for a resumption of the Greek hydrocarbon market. A first move in this direction with particular interest would be a possible decision to launch three-dimensional seismic surveys in the south and west of Crete, which are known to have frozen at least for 2022.
Source: Capital
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