The EEZ is in tself an institutional context at a legal level.
After its demarcations it acquires geopolitical importance, but in order to gain its geo-economic value its energean dimension must exist.
This of course starts, as from the seismic surveys, and it continues with the licensing for the research, which is preparing the drilling proccess.
But the important stage is the licensing for the mining, which is preparing the final phase, with the extraction stations or even the liquefaction plants.
The idea is quite simple.
The EEZ is a geopolitical chessboard, but its action begins with the stations, which are representing the pawns that a nation places on it, in order to play an important role in the wider region.
Because the mining platforms are very stable and are so, for decades.
Moreover, they do not need protection from the State which provides the EEZ for utilization, because each platform has automatically the implicit support of the State in which the company that handles it belongs to.
Therefore an alliance context and an action field are created, which converts the legal EEZ in a powerful EEZ , which provides for, supports and is protecting its nation.
Greece and Cyprus are slowly entering this category, which was unthinkable only a few years ago, but seems incredible even now.