Auction for the oil fields of western Greece

Do it like Cyprus

 

One can not exactly say that Greece got jealous of our Cypriot brothers’ glory, as this specific development is being prepared for months now by the environment minister Yannis Maniatis and his colleagues. However, only few days after the Cypriot announcements for deposits of natural gas detected in field No 12, the government is launching contests for the conduction of drilling in identified deposits in western
Greece.


These are areas in Ioannina, the Patras’ Gulf and Katakolo, where stocks are estimated to yield about 15 to 20 billion dollars State revenue over the next 20 to 25 years, with prices from 80 to 100 dollars per barrel.

Based on data from surveys of earlier years, the estimated reserves at the Patras Gulf are 200 million barrels, in Ioannina 50 to 80 million barrels, and from 3 to 8 million barrels in Katakolo.

It is noted that recent seismic surveys in the Gulf of Patras have shown interesting geological structures that could possibly be bearing oil. In 2001, Triton did not proceed into drilling in the most promising structure due to a different business choice, as stated in the relevant documents of the environment ministry. The drilling of the region however, is very difficult.

Regarding Epirus, it will require a costly in-depth investigation of 4 kilometers to identify potential oil geological targets. This infrastructure was also not drilled in 2002 by Enterprise Oil for technical reasons, as the stated in the recommendation of the ministry.

As for Katakolo, it is estimated that the deposit which was identified from 1982, should be the most economically and technically advantageous in order to exploit.

It is worth noting that a call to conduct seismic surveys that will highlight potential opportunities for exploitation of deposits in areas south of Crete and the Ionian Sea, is underway and ends on March 2.