Committee to update ELPE, Energean on current offers

ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum) and Energean Oil & Gas executives, hoping their respective companies secure hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation licenses for onshore blocks in western Greece, will today face the tender’s appraisal committee for updates on offers already made before being asked to submit improved bids, both in terms of their technical and financial aspects.

The two companies will then have several days to submit their latest improved bids, after having already responded to a call for improvements once before. Otherwise, they will need to officially declare their current offers as final bids. The tender’s latest deadline expires on October 30, but the procedure may be completed prior to this date.

Once the procedure has been finalized, the appraisal committee will transfer the offers to Environment and Energy Minister Panos Skourletis, who will announce the final results.

Both ELPE and Energean Oil & Gas have placed bids for an onshore block in the Arta-Preveza area. ELPE also submitted an offer for a block in the northwestern Peloponnese, while Energean Oil & Gas placed an additional offer for a license in Etoloakarnania.

The tender was launched last November and the two companies submitted their original offers three months later, on February 6, when the procedure’s first deadline expired.

These three regions rank among Greece’s most promising for hydrocarbons exploration. Seismic surveys and drilling have been conducted in preceding decades. In the years following the millennium, US firm Triton had conducted drilling work in Etoloakarnania, while British company Enterprise, eventually acquired by Shell, explored the western Peloponnese block.

Italian company ENEL had expressed interest in all three blocks early in 2014, prompting the Greek government at the time to initiate procedures for international tenders. However, the Italian company eventually receded from the picture.