Four bills ratifying a number of leases for the concession of exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in four maritime areas in Crete and the Ionian Sea were submitted to the Greek parliament yesterday by the ministry of environment and energy.

The ministry in charge characterized the development as “a vote of confidence of major international oil companies to invest 140m euros in explorations”, while noting that the ratification of the contracts – the negotiations for which lasted from 2015 to 2019 – reinforce Greece’s extroversion in the growing field of hydrocarbon research and exploitation.

Specifically, the two contracts signed on 27 June 2019 between the Greek State – represented by the Minister for the Environment and Energy and the Greek Hydrocarbon Managing Authority – and Total, ExxonMobil and Greek Petroleum Consortium are being ratified for the “Southwest Crete” and “Western Crete” marine areas.

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