Meanwhile, in the field of hydrocarbon explo-
ration, the first tender for three onshore conces-
sion blocks in Western Greece attracted only
Greek interest.
Two Greek oil companies made bids as part of
the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Exploitation
tender.
These companies are Hellenic Petroleum and
Energean Oil & Gas, which took part in the inter-
national tender of the Ministry of Productive
Reconstruction, Environment and Energy, while
no foreign company showed up — not even Italy’s
Enel, which almost one and a half year ago had
triggered the process by asking for all three con-
cession blocks.
According to the statements of the Ministry and
the companies, ELPE made bids for the “Arta-
Preveza” and “Northwest Peloponnese” blocks,
while Energean Oil & Gas also bid for “Arta-
Preveza”, as well as for “Aetoloakarnania”.
Obviously, the foreign firms’ failure to express any
interest is the result of the steep drop in interna-
and energy grids, and more specifically, of
European funding, which is absolutely inade-
quate.
“For obvious reasons, we consider the Cyprus-
Crete-Greek mainland grid energy interconnec-
tion to be a project of absolutely necessity and
strategic importance, which should be included in
the projects of common European interest and
also receive generous funding.
“In the same vein, we also believe that the
European support to the energy interconnection
of the Aegean islands is fair and justifiable, aimed
at further boosting electricity from wind power and
drastically reducing gas emissions.
“Let me also note that the European funds allocat-
ed to energy production are inadequate and unfair-
ly distributed, while the financing facilities benefit
only those countries and companies that have
access to cheap lending. If no steps are taken to
remedy this situation, a series of economically
weaker countries may become energy-dependent
from rich nations and large corporations.”
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