ExxonMobil lives in Greece, and with an increased percentage, in concessions to the west and southwest of it Cretebut she needs her… time to carry out what is stipulated by the contract with the Greek state research program.

The American multinational requested a two-year extension of the program from EDEY on August 8 and a second additional letter on August 16. The company’s managing director, Aristophanes Stefatos, signed the relevant resolutions on 23 August providing for a 24-month extension until October 2024. The period that Total secured the management of two concessions in 2019 by signing contracts was three years. and ended in October 2022. However, the Total-led consortium, for reasons related to the general climate of investment cutbacks that prevailed just one year after the concessions, as well as appeals by environmental organizations to the Council of Europe against the ministry’s decision to approve the Strategic Environmental Impact Study, never started the research program. until he left Greece last April.

In July, ExxonMobil assumed the role of operator in a consortium of two concessions, acquiring a 75% stake in the French company (40%), while the remaining 25% was transferred to a third partner, ELPE, namely two subsidiaries. it is created for specific activities in the two concessions of Crete.

Thus, ExxonMobil’s request to extend the first phase of its exploration program comes almost a month after the very good news of its stay in Greece with an enhanced role in the consortium of up-and-coming areas of Crete. However, while this extends the time of the investigation, deviating significantly from the schedule for the start of EDEY announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself on April 12, it does not cause concern to the competent Greek authorities, who did not appear to be suspicious of ExxonMobil’s request. On the contrary, it appears that she was the subject of negotiations for her stay in Greece, which market participants consider reasonable to a certain extent, since Total did not conduct a single kilometer of seismic survey. Moreover, the next option that the Greek side had, if it did not find a successor after Total left, was to cancel the contracts in order to return the plots and look for contractors again, which would lead to even longer delays.

Research is being carried out at sites to the west and southwest of Crete.

The American company has committed itself to quantitatively and qualitatively modernize the work in order to conduct exploratory drilling by October 2024. As characteristically stated in the decisions signed by Mr. Stefatos, EDEY, given “the intention of the lessee to proceed with the qualitative and quantitative modernization of the work of the minimum work program of the first stage of the work stage, with the help of which he can expedite the decision to conduct exploration drilling until October 2024” , but also “the need to continue and accelerate the completion of the Hydrocarbon Research Program in the offshore zone “West Crete” and in the offshore zone “Southwest Crete” in order to promote and protect the public interest, decided to give its consent (as lessor) to the extension of the terms to fulfill the obligations of the tenant by 24 months, that is, until October 9, 2024, in order to facilitate the material implementation of the new qualitatively and quantitatively updated work program, in accordance with the obligations of the letter from the commissioning organization dated 08/15/2022. ExxonMobil is to submit a revised 2022 work program and budget within the contractual deadline.

“We remain fully committed to fulfilling our promise to the Prime Minister to accelerate the intelligence program in our country. We are satisfied with our cooperation with all land surveyors and look forward to faster and better results in our exploration work,” said Aristophanes Stefanos, Managing Director of EDEY, commenting on the decision to extend the program.

Moreover, the very good news from Cyprus with the discovery of a new field (Kronos-1) is especially encouraging for Greece. The geology of the deposit, as mentioned by those in the know in “K”, is equivalent to the structures of the Zor type, a large deposit in Egypt, which are similar to the structures of Crete.