34103 - The two new marine blocks of the Greek EEZ were issued

E. Conophagos, N. Lygeros, A. Foskolos
Translated from Greek by Athina Kehagias

The two new marine blocks of the Greek EEZ which are situated West of Crete and Southwest of Crete have been finally issued and they have been named with that characteristic terminology at the International Proclamation for Proposals for the Exploration and Exploitation of Hydrocarbons, published in the Government Journal of the Hellenic Republic in the Second Issue, Text number 2848, on August 11, 2017.
Consequently, we now have proof that the request of the triple consortium of ExxonMobil, Total and Greek Petroleum has functioned as a catalyst towards this new licensing round of the Greek EEZ.
The Licensing round is based upon the BEICIP study supported by PGS.
The submission fee per each application is € 5,000.
The date of initiating the Tender Procedure will be the date of issue in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The same had occurred in the case of the first Licensing round back in 2014.
The deadline re: the application is 90 days after the publication.
Tender evaluation must occur within 60 days.
That constitutes a European regulation.
And the conclusion of a leasing contract within 60 days of the completion of the evaluation.
The Applicant must, in addition to paying up the application fee, must also purchase at least 3,000 km of PGS seismic lines, must purchase the BEICIP 2014 two-dimensional interpretation report for 50,000 Euros, purchase the specialized geological and geophysical analysis of the declared regions through The HELLENIC HYDROCARBONS RESOURCES MANAGEMENT at a cost of € 25,000, and where the Applicant is a Consortium, then, this condition must be applicable to each member of the Consortium.
The same is applicable re: the the report. We state all these for those who say that it would take long before Greece will get any money, because they aren’t aware that this begins right away. The same occurred with Cyprus.
And that is just the beginning.
The file will include documents of legal capacity, economic capacity, technical capacity and a sealed sub-folder regarding the Licensing round’s data.
The Applicant must provide a guarantee of participation of
€ 100,000.
The Applicant must propose in Euros, an annual amount as a acreage compensation per square kilometer, for each issued region, and all that increasingly as per survey phase.
The Southwest of Crete region, obtains an area of 19,868.37 square kilometers.
Whereas the region West of Crete obtains an area of 20,058.4 square kilometers.
It should be also noted at this point, that the two regions are covered by the 4001/2011 Amendment re: the Hydrocarbons Act 2289/1995, and that they both have a point of contact with the Libyan EEZ, they are therefore powerful blocks which constitute added value for Greece, as they also utilize to the utmost the range of the Greek EEZ, a factor which we had presented at a specific Masterclass in Crete.