Premier Tsipras Announces US’ ExxonMobil to Conduct Exploration South of Crete - GREEK REPORTER

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Jun 21, 2019Nick Kampouris

Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras announced on Friday that the Greek government and the American Energy giant ExxonMobil will sign an agreement regarding energy exploration and drilling next week.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels following the two-day European Council Summit, Tsipras said that Greece has reached an agreement with the US-based company, which will soon start to search for, and later exploit, natural gas deposits which are south and southwest of Crete, inside Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

”Greece goes ahead with the exploitation of its own Exclusive Economic Zone, in the same manner that Cyprus does with its own,” the Greek Prime Minister noted after the Summit.

Tsipras said that, following years of planning and conducting the proper foreign policy, ”It is time to bear the fruits.”

Greece’s DEPA to Begin Selling Natural Gas to Bulgaria - GREEK REPORTER

Apr 3, 2019Tasos Kokkinidis

Greek energy provider DEPA on Tuesday became the first Western company to strike a deal with Bulgaria’s state-owned Bulgargaz to provide natural gas to the country.

This is the first time Bulgaria has ever bought gas from another provider outside its long-term contract with Russia’s Gazprom. Currently, more than 95 percent of the Balkan country’s gas needs are met by supplies from Gazprom, and the product is delivered through a pipeline which crosses Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.

Bulgargaz will complete the purchase of 1.5 million megawatt hours of fuel from DEPA in the second quarter, pumping the gas into its Chiren underground storage facility, the company said on Tuesday.

Bulgargaz said DEPA had offered the lowest price in a tender in which the state provider also received offers from Bulgaria’s Dexia Company and the Dutch-registered Kolmar NL.

The deal was hailed by the United States Ambassador to Athens Geoffrey Pyatt, who tweeted that the development was “another welcome example of Greece’s growing role as a facilitator of European energy diversification.”

How Greece Will Benefit from East Med Gas Pipeline - GREEK REPORTER

Jan 1, 2019
Philip Chrysopoulos

Greece will definitely benefit from the recent agreement with Israel and Cyprus for the construction of the East Med gas pipeline, according to a report in the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt.

The proposed pipeline will transport natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe. The cooperative agreement was recently signed by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades.

Talks between the three nations on the issue began in 2015 and have progressed to a solid alliance, according to Handelsblatt. The three Mediterranean countries aim to intensify their cooperation and make it permanent with the establishment of a joint secretariat based in Cyprus.

The newspaper notes that the enormous reserves of natural gas believed to be under the eastern Mediterranean seabed could contribute substantially to the energy supply of the whole of Western Europe.

Aircraft Carrier ‘USS George H.W. Bush’ Docks at NATO’s Base in Crete

USS George H.W. Bush

Feb 25, 2017
A. Makris

U.S. aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush sailed into Souda’s port in western Crete on Saturday, for the second time in the last few days.

The warship, which docked at NATO’s harbor in Marathi, was accompanied by three more vessels of the U.S. Navy and is expected to stay in Chania for about ten days. Its crew started disembarking after noon.

USS George H.W. Bush, nicknamed the “Avenger”, can carry 85 aircrafts and helicopters and about 6,000 crew members.