Parliament: The contract to expand the underground reservoir in southern Kavala was sanctioned

With the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, speaking of an important investment, “which, if carried out, will support the country’s energy sector and ensure the adequacy of supply in critical moments such as today”, the expansion contract was ratified by an enlarged majority of the underground reservoir in southern Kavala to the current concessionaire. This is the bill with the title “Ratification of the sixth amendment of the November 23, 1999 Convention on the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the marine area of ​​the Thracian Sea, which has been drawn up between the Greek State and the Contracting Company ENERGEAN OIL AND GAS – ENERGEAN OIL AND GAS ANONYMOUS COMPANY OF RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION HYDROCARBONS”, which ND and KINAL voted for and SYRIZA, KKE, Hellenic Solution and MERA25 voted against.

The Minister of Environment and Energy expressed his question about SYRIZA’s negative vote on the convention in question, pointing out that it is the same convention that was ratified as the fifth amendment in 2018 by SYRIZA as a government and said to the main opposition wing: “Unfortunately, you have governed forwards and backwards, with “No” and “Yes” and for this reason, unfortunately, he judged you the way the Greek people judged you”.

During his speech to the Plenary, he explained that the amendment is important, because contrary to what SYRIZA did not do during the entire time it was in power, today it is attempting to utilize the underground reservoir, from which we extracted fossil fuels, hydrocarbons in the previous decades , for the benefit of the public interest and for the benefit of Greek citizens. This will be done by storing natural gas there in the summer season, where traditionally, except for the current state of emergency, prices are low, which is then used in the winter season, when prices are traditionally high. Mr. Skrekas added that while most countries that have maritime areas, have coastlines, have underground warehouses, we are the only country that does not have such an underground warehouse. He clarified that through an international competition conducted by the TAIPED, an effort is being made to find a private investor to operate this warehouse, “so that we can support the Greek economy and Greek society”. “Today if we had it, we would be even better, just as we are very well that we have the gasification facility in Revythoussa” he said and in response to the opposition’s criticism of high costs that will ultimately be passed on to taxpayers, he said that even when Revythoussa was built , during the government of Constantinos Mitsotakis, the same were heard in order to “come to this day and say that we are fortunate to have this facility, while we have used it all these twenty years”.

“It made it possible for us to diversify our sources of supply and not only have one supplier, which was Russia at the time, but also have other suppliers, importing liquefied natural gas by ship from other parts of the world. In this way, we also push prices towards the bottom line, why do we also create competition, because when there is only one supplier, there is a monopoly, and how can you negotiate with your sole supplier in natural gas? It is a mixed bag negotiation that will never end in favor of the buyer. It will always be in favor of monopolistic supplier. This is what this warehouse can do,” pointed out the minister in charge.

On behalf of SYRIZA-PS, Sultana Eleftheriadou accused the government of a lack of planning and questioned the reasons for the extension, as invoked by the government side, predicting that they will not be implemented because “this is not of interest to the government”. “You are not interested in healthy entrepreneurship. You are not interested in oil being produced in Greece, especially at this time when we have these issues in the energy sector. You are only interested in giving gifts to friends and mothers. And above all, the initial concession agreement at all levels. Normally, ENERGY should deliver the facilities at this time,” she said, addressing the relevant minister. Mrs. Eleftheriadou requested that the original concession contract be respected, that it be respected for the benefit of the employees and for the benefit of the local community, as provided for in the contract itself and pointed out that at the moment ENERGIAKI in the way it operates only brings problems to the local community and the Greek economy has no benefit. Finally, he raised the issue of workers at the Prinos facilities and argued that it is a business choice and a political choice for the government to tolerate.

The special buyer of the Communist Party of Greece, Leonidas Stoltidis, emphasized that the contract does not serve the needs of society, it presents the victims of exploitation as a public interest, the interest of monopolistic groups. In Greece, Energean’s priority is not mining, but claiming the storage unit. “The investment priorities of the groups are, of course, in line with the government’s statements, that Greece will not give weight to the production of oil and natural gas. These decisions and priorities are not taken with the popular needs in mind, the reduction of energy poverty, unemployment and the country’s energy dependence.

The interests of the US and Greek shipowners dominate here, with the aim of their economic and geopolitical competition with Russia in the European energy market and the reduction of dependence on Russian natural gas,” he said. Mr. Stoltidis concluded by pointing out that the KKE is voting against the sixth amendment of the Convention, based on the fact that hydrocarbons are the property of the Greek people and it is, as it turns out, dangerous in the current conditions to be in the hands of business groups.

The special buyer of the Hellenic Solution, Vasilios Viliardos, after declaring that despite the fact that his party is in favor of the construction of the natural gas storage area, he will not vote for the contract because he does not wish to support it blankly and without having received answers to the questions that he raised, as he characteristically said, “for the extension of the agreement, according to the usual tactics of the internal troika”.

From MERA25, the special buyer, Kriton Arsenis, reported that the government is essentially subsidizing a company with loan guarantees of 100 million to keep the workers and the first thing it did was fire them, while continuing to offer it changes in contract through a process that will ultimately never be completed. “You are only doing services” he finally asserted and estimated that “until the Recovery Fund, the 60 billion, and the NSRP, the 24 billion, are legalized, that is, until March, April, May, there will be no elections”.

Answers Skreka

“Of course there should be a tender, of course the financial data should be such that the project is sustainable and of course we should assess what the unavoidable costs are, if we create such a reservoir, in the event that we have exceptional situations of exceptional crises, as we now have the Ukraine war, an extraordinary energy crisis fueled by that war, how ultimately such investments can help us mitigate the effects of such explosive crises and how this can ultimately help the Greek, domestic economy. , so we do.

In very simple words, we are extending the concession for a period of time, until the tender is completed, so that ENERGEAN OIL AND GAS can continue to manage, to essentially maintain the facilities there, because otherwise the State would have to take them over . The current concession holder will of course not use – as is clear, because the deposit has also been exhausted – this field for hydrocarbon extraction. He will maintain it, he will keep it in good condition, so that it can be handed over to any investor who emerges from the international tender,” replied the Minister of Environment.

Referring to the issue of workers and the individual questions, Mr. Skrekas answered that the onshore and offshore facilities of Prinos were temporarily suspended at the end of September 2021 in order to carry out the planned periodic maintenance of the equipment, which was completed by October 22, 2021. Before the resumption of production, the workers’ union occupied the premises and did not allow entry to the premises to the executives, either managerial or responsible or with a position of responsibility of the factory management. At the same time, attempts were probably made to restart production, without the safety conditions being guaranteed. The company was forced to ask DEPA to stop the supply of natural gas, since the southern Kavala deposit, in principle, had been exhausted in order to avoid further consequences. It should be noted that, due to the above conditions, the suspension of the production process was also ordered by EDEY on 8/11/21 with the order not to restart the factory until the administration regains full control of the facilities and the necessary checks are carried out, as they were subsequently. Now, the goal is to resume production immediately. After the required checks have been carried out, the company should file the necessary documents proving that the safe operation of the plant is ensured. And that’s what we expect to happen from now on. Right now the company actually has 56 employees who have remained and are working – among them executives – out of the 198 that existed. It has also proceeded with the recruitment of 39 new employees of various specialties and there is still a necessary number of recruitments remaining, in order to fill the necessary positions, so that the company can proceed safely and in accordance with the contractual obligations to resume production as soon as possible. Finally, the contract provides for the sending to the State of an annual program of oil operations and other reports and the company has already done or will do all this to EDEY, i.e. it will send them to EDEY, which is also the relevant authority to approve and then proceed with the operation of said factory.