Greece awards two onshore concessions

Greece has awarded two natural gas exploration concessions to Energean Oil & Gas and Hellenic Petroleum. Both concessions are for onshore drilling. Energean's concession is in west Greece in Aitoloakarnania region while HPs concession is in the Arta, Preveza and northwest Peloponnese regions.

Energean is the only upstream company in Greece while HP is the biggest refineries operator in the country. In a statement its CEO Grigorios Stergioulis said: "We start independently, but we are open to collaborations and proposals based on international industry standards."

According to Reuters, HP, French Total and Italian Edison also bid for an offshore gas drilling block in the Ionian Sea. In addition to refining and supply of oil products HP is involved in power generation in partnership with Edison and holds 35% in Depa, the main natural gas importer to Greece.

Ya'acov Zalel