Eight foreign oil firms have expressed interest in collaborating with Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE) to search for oil and gas in the Arta-Preveza areas and the northwestern Peloponnese, the general director of HELPE's Oil & Gas Exploration and Production Division Yiannis Grigoriou said on Wednesday.
These included oil giants Total, Shell, Repsol, Japex, Dana Petroleum,
INA and Hunt, Grigoriou said, announcing that HELPE was currently in
negotiations with these groups.
Speaking at an energy conference held at the Athens
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Grigoriou said that the concession contracts
for the two areas had been agreed with the environment and energy ministry.
What now remained to be done was an evaluation by the Court of Audit, their
signature and ratification by Parliament, he added.
HELPE was currently in negotiations with a total of 25
companies interested in conducting oil exploration in areas of Greece, he
revealed, and had already initialled agreements for the concession to Block 2
northwest of Corfu to a consortium made up by Total and Edison. Also to be
initialled soon was a contract for exploration in an area off Kyparissia Bay,
he said.
(ANA-MPA)
