Daring to Drill - Greece’s Energy Future Is Ours
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking at a working lunch hosted by the Propeller Club of Piraeus, an organization of Greek shipowners, held at the Nautical Club of Greece. It was an honour, as well as an important opportunity to speak openly about something I care deeply about: Greece’s untapped potential in hydrocarbons and energy security.
Let me be clear - Greece has multiple significant opportunities. We have resources both discovered and projected beneath our feet and seabed. But opportunity alone means nothing without action. What we lack, quite frankly, is the courage to move forward and the political and regulatory stability to make bold energy decisions stick.
At Energean, we’ve proven what’s possible when courage combines with strategy. We started with a $1 million investment in the Prinos field and built that into a company now worth $2 billion. In Israel, we developed the Karish field and brought it online in just five years. When combined with gas from the Karish North Field, discovered by Energean in 2019, we now supplies around 50% of the country’s gas demand, . Why? Because the policy and regulatory support was there. Because decisions were made quickly and followed through.
In Greece, the story is different. Even getting a single drilling project off the ground is an exercise in endurance – lack of long term strategy and commitment, local particularities, bureaucratic paralysis, endless discussions. We must ask ourselves honestly: Do we want to be energy players, or permanent spectators?
The Eastern Mediterranean is changing fast. Countries that invest in their own resources gain energy independence and geopolitical power. Egypt did it. Israel did it. Meanwhile, Europe still finds itself energy-dependent. Greece has a choice - be bold, or be left behind.
Let’s not forget: the potential has been known for centuries. Even Herodotus wrote about oil seeps in Western Greece over 2,500 years ago. And yet, all we must show for it is Prinos. That’s not just a missed opportunity - that’s an historical failure to act.
Today, Energean is working to change that. In Block 2 of the Northwestern Ionian Sea, we’ve already completed seismic surveys. We’re now waiting for procedures to be finalized and for the right partner to move forward with drilling. But we must avoid the temptation of announcements without substance. I hear talk about extractions south of Crete, and I must say - interest is not production. From expressing interest to actual extraction, a decade can pass, if we let it.
We need a different mindset. One that rewards initiative and moves at the pace of the global energy race.
That same forward-thinking attitude is what’s driving our Prinos CO₂ Storage Project. We’re converting an almost depleted field into a carbon storage site that could capture 3 million tons of CO₂ per year - cutting the country’s industrial carbon footprint by up to 30%. It’s ambitious. It’s pioneering. And this time, we must make it work. Too many similar projects, like our attempt to create a gas storage facility, never materialized. We cannot afford another missed chance.
To close my remarks at the Club - and to all of you reading now - I say this: Greece has energy reserves. Greece has talent. Greece has a chance. What we need now is political stability, procedural speed, and the courage to take strategic risks. That’s how you win the energy game.
We’ve seen what’s possible. Let’s dare to go after it.
