Papastavrou: The first drilling will begin in February 2027 - Potential revenues of up to 10 billion euros

The Minister of Environment and Energy, speaking to ERTnews, stressed that the explorations for the plot in question are at a mature stage and referred to yesterday's announcements regarding Chevron's entry into plot 10 in the Kyparissia Gulf.

"Following the developments with the war in the Persian Gulf, everyone understands the importance of the energy security of each country," stressed St. Papastavrou, underlining how important it is for a country "if it can be a natural gas producer itself and not rely on another region."

Explaining what yesterday's announcements about hydrocarbons in block 10 mean, he pointed out that "Chevron entered a fifth offshore plot that was previously owned by HELLENiQ ENERGY, taking 70% of the plot and the right to have the first say in developing it.

"This shows that Chevron is expanding its presence. Also, that the second largest oil company in the world sees something in this area that may have some commercial exploitation interest. It also shows that our country is on the radar of the two largest companies (ed.: ExxonMobil and Chevron)".

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources stressed that "in order to develop the hydrocarbon sector, a very high cost and know-how are needed. Because it must be done with the highest standards in order for this investment to be environmentally safe".

Block 10
Stavros Papastavrou, underlining that we have not made a decision on drilling in block 10, pointed out that the cost of exploratory drilling alone is around 80 million. If one proceeds with commercial exploitation, according to information from the consortium, Mr. Papastavrou noted that we are talking about an investment of 3-4 billion.

“One can imagine the money that will come to the country if commercial exploitation takes place,” emphasized the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources and added that “if the exploratory drilling goes well in February (ed.: at the Asopos point in Corfu), then after 2-3 years we will proceed with the exploitation of the deposit.

He himself spoke of public revenues of 10 billion over time, which “arise from taxation, taxes at the local and regional level and an escalation from the production that will exist.”

“There are many discussions about how we will share the wealth we have. It is very important to discuss how we will increase it. Where will the things we will share come from,” stressed Mr. Papstavrou and added that “the possibility of whether the exploratory drilling is positive is not only important for energy autonomy but also for public revenues. Greece will have energy autonomy and public revenues that will raise the standard of living of the Greek citizen.”

“There is a question: “With the sun and the wind” or “with hydrocarbons”? The answer is one: with Greece and the Greeks,” stressed Mr. Papstavrou and added that “every country from America and Russia to Iran and China is responsibly developing what it has. What do we have? Wind, solar, hydroelectric, but we also probably have underwater deposits. We must take advantage of everything that the country offers us and create an energy mix that allows us to be energy autonomous.”

The development of the hydrocarbon sector does not mean that we are straying from clean energy
He added that “Europe has essentially moved away from hydrocarbons and ended up being the largest importer of natural gas from the US. The fact that we are developing the hydrocarbon sector does not mean that we are straying from the direction of sustainable development and clean energy. The goal is to have an energy mix that leads to decarbonization. But because with wind and sun you cannot have stable energy, the participation of natural gas in the energy mix is ​​necessary and Europe recognizes this.”

Response to A. Tsipras
Regarding A.’s proposal Tsipras for a “minimum guaranteed quantity of electricity at a fixed price for all” and whether the government can adopt it, Mr. Papastavrou recalled that when Mr. Tsipras was prime minister in 2019, “Greece had the highest wholesale energy price in Europe. The price in Europe was 43-45 and we had 63 here. Making proposals when the government’s experience shows exactly the opposite. It is not consistent.”

“Let’s sprint in the energy storage sector”

“Greece in 2019 had 6.3 giga from renewable sources. Today we have 18. We have tripled electricity from renewable sources,” emphasized the Minister of Environment and Energy, underlining that “in the last 12 months we added 3 giga. This is electricity that we get from the sun and wind. Our energy autonomy is built with concrete actions and projects, not with words.”

We have all this electricity but this usually comes at noon due to the sun, stressed Mr. Papstavrou and underlined the need for quick steps to be taken in the country regarding energy storage.

“We cannot use all of this energy. We could if we could store this energy. Because this energy is somehow lost,” noted Mr. YPEN and added that “until March our country had no storage connected to the grid.

In April, the first two batteries with a capacity of 32 megawatts were put into operation, which according to the YPEN is “a very small amount” and added that we are now approaching 200 megawatts of storage. “By the end of the year we will be close to 700-800. We need to have batteries to store excess energy at noon, so that we can use it at night,” he stressed, adding that the goal is to reach 1.2-1.4 megawatts of storage by 2027. “The energy you store is very important for the stability of the system.”