Energean Oil & Gas SA, Athens, has signed a lease agreement with the Greek government for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons on the 4,360-sq-km Aitoloakarnania block onshore western Greece.
Aitoloakarnania is an underexplored block and is part of the same system commonly referred to as the Ionian basin. The area is a geological continuation of Ioaninna block, which has been explored by Energean since 2014. Both blocks cover a total of 8,547 sq km and are priority exploration targets for Energean.
The area also is considered to be the southern-most extension of the greater peri-Adriatic basin, which has proven prolific with oil and gas production in Albania, Italy, and Croatia, Energean says. In total, more than 10 billion bbl of oil and 30 tcf of gas have been discovered throughout the region.
Energean in March agreed to farm out 60% interest in Ioannina and Aitoloakarnania blocks to Repsol SA, which will be operator of both Aitoloakarnania and Ioannina blocks. The two companies have already submitted an application to the Greek government to approve Repsol’s plans to farm in and undertake a 2D seismic survey over Ioannina in 2017-18 and conduct a full tensor gravity and 2D seismic survey over the Aitoloakarnania in 2018-19.
“Energean is the only producer of oil and gas in Greece where we are developing the 41 million bbl of 2P reserves in Prinos,” said Mathios Rigas, Energean Group chairman and chief executive officer. “In addition, Energean is developing through [a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel] the 2.4-tcf Karish and Tanin deepwater offshore gas fields in Israel, and, to complement our producing and development assets, we are building a very promising exploration portfolio in western Greece and the East Adriatic. We are investing a total of $1.5 billion in the region with a vision to become the leading independent in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
The company is pursuing an ongoing investment and development program to increase production from Prinos and North Prinos oil fields and develop Epsilon oil field. Energean late last year received a 25-year exploitation license for the West Katakolo offshore block in western Greece with oil production expected in 2019-20 (OGJ Online, Nov. 29, 2016).
Energean plans to submit to the Israeli government a field development plan for Karish and Tanin by midyear, aiming to use an FPSO and produce gas in 2020 (OGJ Online, Jan. 13, 2017).