Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE) has announced a decision to withdraw from two onshore licenses, Arta-Preveza, in Greece’s northwest, and Northwest Peloponnese, adding to a series of recent negative developments for the country’s hydrocarbon aspirations, increasingly stagnant.

The ELPE decision is a result of the country’s ongoing energy transition towards a low-emissions economy, reflecting the upstream industry’s global contraction.

ELPE is striving for a 30 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2030 and becoming carbon-neutral by the end of the decade.

Like most upstream companies around the world, ELPE is turning its business interests to the RES sector and repositioning to reduce its exposure to CO2 emissions.

The ELPE decision to surrender its two onshore block licenses follows a recent decision by Spain’s Repsol, with Energean, to return to the Greek State exploration and production rights to an Etoloakarnania block, in the country’s northwest.

Repsol, seeking to limit its upstream exposure, has decided to withdraw from its hydrocarbon interests in Greece, as well as a further 13 countries of 28 in which the company is active.

Repsol has also left its interests in an Ioannina onshore block, in the northwest, leaving Energean alone in this venture, the country’s sole onshore license. Repsol also withdrew from its offshore Ionian Sea block, a 50-50 venture with ELPE.