Greek authorities have officially announced an international tender offering exploration and exploitation licenses for offshore blocks west and southwest of Crete.

The tender was prompted by investment interest expressed in the aforementioned areas by a consortium comprised of ExxonMobil, Total and ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum).

As was expected, leasing agreements will be offered to investors. Taxation rates of 20 percent will be included in the terms, along with a 5 percent regional tax.

According to the international tender’s terms, bid appraisals will be processed over 60 days and agreements signed 60 days after this stage has been completed. This essentially means that the procedure should be completed at the end of this year, or, possibly, early in 2018, assuming no extraordinary delays.