Minister: Greece wants to complete the Chevron gas exploration agreement this year

The Greek energy minister announced on Friday that the country is working to complete a contract by the end the year with U.S. major oil company Chevron, and its Greek partner Helleniq Energy. This agreement will cover energy exploration off the coast of Greece.

Chevron, Greece's largest oil refiner Helleniq and other companies submitted a joint offer in an annual Greek tender to search for gas in deep sea blocks near the Peloponnese Peninsula and Crete.

Stavros papastavrou, Energy Minister at Greek Television Action24 said: "We are working with the U.S. firm and Helleniq Energy intensively to meet the timelines and complete the contract by 2025."

Greece, which has very little oil production and relies heavily on gas imports to power its domestic consumption and generate electricity, is keen to explore and enhance its role as a transit route for gas as part of an EU push to get away from Russian energy following the invasion of Ukraine by Moscow.

Papastavrou stated that once the contract between Chevron and Greece is finalised, the company will need to get approval from the Greek Court of Auditors and the Parliament before it can begin seismic research. The company has five years to find potential recoverable deposits.

He added that any eventual test drilling will not happen before 2030-2032. Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou. (Editing by Jane Merriman.)

(source: Reuters)