One land area and five offshore areas where concessions for hydrocarbon exploration have already been awarded in the past have been selected for the accelerated hydrocarbon exploration process, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated on Tuesday during a meeting held at the Hellenic Hydrocarbon Resources Management company.
The six areas are located northwest of the island of Corfu, in the Ionian Sea, in the Gulf of Kyparissia and in the sea west and southwest of Crete, as well as in the regional unit of Ioannina.
For the areas near Crete, the consortium conducting the exploration is comprised of the companies Total, ExxonMobil and Hellenic Petroleum, while an Energean-Hellenic Petroleum consortium is operating near Corfu, Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE) in the Gulf of Kyparissia and Energean in Ioannina.
The other land areas in Western Greece where concessions for hydrocarbon exploration were given (Etoloakarnania, Arta, Preveza and northwest Peloponnese) were returned to the Greek state, while an offshore area in western Patras Gulf, where surveys showed the existence of oil and not natural gas, will probably also be returned to the Greek state.
SOURCE; AMNA
