Greece approves the tender for hydrocarbons in four offshore blocks

The energy ministry announced on Thursday that Greece had approved an international bid for hydrocarbon exploration of four blocks in Mediterranean Sea following expressions of interest from Chevron Energy and Helleniq Energy.

The energy ministry announced that Greece issued a ministerial order this week to launch a tender international after accepting Chevron’s interest in two blocks south-west of Crete, and one block near the Peloponnese Peninsula.

After winning the licence to search for gas in two more blocks of Crete, an ExxonMobil consortium is evaluating seismic data.

The ministry said that interested investors would have 90 days after the publication of the tender in the official journal of the European Union to submit bids for the new blocks.

Greece imports oil and gas to meet a part of its needs. However, it has recently renewed its search for hydrocarbons, prompted by the discovery of major gas reserves off Egypt (which is south of Crete) and despite an ongoing dispute with Turkey over jurisdiction in the Aegean.

A Greek energy ministry official said that Greek Energy Minister Stavros papastavrou would meet Chevron representatives during a visit to the United States in late this month.

The Greek government has stated that it hopes to complete the tender in August and get the lease agreements approved by the parliament before the end of this year. Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou Editing Mark Potter

(source: Reuters)