Debt-hitGreece has untapped energy and mineral
resources and will soon issue exploration tenders in a bid to jump-start its
flagging economy, a junior minister said Friday.
"There are serious indications that in several areas there are likely
hydrocarbon reserves that could cover between one-fifth and one-third of our
energy requirements for the next 30 years," deputy energy minister Yiannis
Maniatis told Ethnos daily in an interview.
"Energy and mineral wealth can turn us into protagonists once more,"
he said.
Maniatis said that the country's mineral reserves alone are worth over EUR38
billion at current prices.
In particular, the northern Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace contain
"confirmed" reserves of nickel, mercury, lead, copper, gold and
silver worth over EUR25 billion, the minister said.
Though this mineral wealth isn't entirely accessible at this stage, the Greek
government is placing emphasis on hydrocarbon exploration and is hoping to have
a state regulator operational in the next 18 months, Maniatis said.
A presidential decree establishing the Greek Regulatory Corporation for
Hydrocarbons was put out this week.
Preliminary exploration has already located hydrocarbon resources in Kavala and
Epanomi in northeastern Greece,
Katakolo in the western Peloponnese, the Ionian Sea and the LibyanSea
south of the island
of Crete, Maniatis said.
An existing oilfield near Kavala covered up to 20% of Greece's needs in the
1980s and yielded over $600 million in profits overall, he said.
Greece
requires some 120 million barrels of oil annually and pays around $12
billion-$14 billion for oil imports each year, equivalent to 4-5% of its gross
domestic product, Maniatis said.
The country is in dire financial straits after nearly going bankrupt this year.
It was saved by a massive loan from the European Union and the International
Monetary Fund but was forced to adopt tough austerity measures that plunged the
economy into a deep recession and brought thousands of layoffs.