“Business stories” now reveals the map of hydrocarbon deposits in Italy, which, based on Enel’s estimates has the same proportions with the yet to be explored Greek land in the western parts of the country, including northwestern Peloponnese, Aitoloakarnania and Preveza-Arta.

As is known, according to evidence so far, an Italian group is the most likely player to take on the whole process. Nothing rules out other stakeholders though.

Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change Yannis Maniatis, talking to “Business Stories” is optimistic about the investment potential and believes that the first major step towards that direction has already been made. In particular, the Minister stated: “Enel’s interest is a vote of confidence in the prospects of the Greek economy and the efforts we have made to exploit Greek hydrocarbon deposits. We begin to implement the target that hydrocarbon deposits are a new source of wealth for the Greek state and its citizens. We are moving forth with a completely operational plan, fully transparently and greatly complemented by Greek scientists for the creation of many hundreds of jobs”. Depending on the data of the Italian deposits, the capacity capability in deposits of Western Greece may approach 1 billion barrels.

Enel Group is the second largest energy company in the EU, a leader in production and distribution of electricity and natural gas, with a market capitalization of nearly 40 billion euros and a power supply of 98.000 MW. Another important component of the Italian experience is that there could be 25000 new job positions opened, as well as investments for the creation of storage space for raw materials and pipelines for transporting oil and gas.