ExxonMobil

Greek lawmakers ratified on Wednesday evening four contracts for hydrocarbon exploration off Crete and in the Ionian Sea.

Voting for the concessions were MPs of ruling New Democracy, KINAL and Greek Solution, while the main opposition SYRIZA expressed reservations. The Communist Party and MeRA25 voted against them.

Cyprus' energy minister says a consortium composed of energy companies Total of France and Eni of Italy has been licensed to explore for natural gas deposits in another area off Cyprus' southern coast.

Georgios Lakkotrypis says the two companies have an equal share in a new block into which a gas deposit that Eni discovered in an adjacent block last year is believed to extend.

US Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, on Friday welcomed the new Greek government's plan to tackle bureaucracy and attract direct foreign investment, saying "the time to invest in Greece is now."

Greece today awarded licenses to ExxonMobil and Total to search for hydrocarbons off the island of Crete, marking the country's first major foray into an oil and gas search in the region.

The two companies, in a consortium with Hellenic Petroleum, have an eight-year research and exploitation license in two offshore blocks lying south and south-west of Crete.

Greece on Thursday awarded licenses to ExxonMobil and Total to search for hydrocarbons off the island of Crete, marking the country's first major foray into an oil and gas search in the region.
The companies, in consortium with Hellenic Petroleum, have an eight-year research and exploitation license in two offshore blocks lying south and south-west of Crete.

The US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt welcomed on Thursday the signing of a deal between Greece and a three-member consortium comprised of ExxonMobil, Total and Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE) for an offshore license west and southwest of Crete.
Pyatt said the agreement with the Energy Ministry is "an important step forward in Greece's emergence as a major European energy hub."

Amidst mounting Turkish threats around Cyprus and in the Aegean, Prime Minister Alexis has announced that that the government will sign a gas exploration deal with ExxonMobil for blocks of Greece's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) south and west of the island of Crete during the week of 24 June.

Ankara is escalating its sharp rhetoric toward Cyprus and Greece due to the dispute over energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, stirring heightened concerns in Nicosia, Athens, and Washington.

The US wants to work with Cyprus and ally Israel to buttress peace in the eastern Mediterranean and to head off Russian influence over the region's energy reserves, a senior US lawmaker said Monday.

By George Gilson

European Council President Donald Tusk has said that the EU is in Cyprus' corner as regards Turkey's violation of the Republic of Cyprus' sovereign right to drill in its own EEZ.