Greece
selected
Norway
's Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) to
carry out offshore seismic tests in the country's south and west, the
government said on Wednesday, paving the way for the launch of an oil and gas
drilling bidding round in 2014.
Oslo-based
PGS will send a ship to the
Ionian Sea
and off the southern
island
of
Crete
to gather the data by the end of
the year, Energy Minister Evangelos Livieratos told lawmakers. Seven other
companies had sought the business.
The value of
the contract was not disclosed.
Based on the
results,
Greece
plans to call a bidding round for
oil and gas exploration in the area in mid-2014.
"There
are serious prospects (for a find)," the minister told a parliamentary
committee. The tests will be conducted in a maritime zone between 100 and 400
kilometres wide, he added.
PGS had
carried out similar tests in
Cyprus
, where a huge offshore gas find
encouraged
Athens
to step up its own search. Cash-strapped
Greece
imports almost all its oil and
natural gas, spending annually about 5 percent of its GDP on the purchases.
Almost 200
fruitless test wells have been drilled in various parts of the country in the
past century, the most recent about 12 years ago. But most of the tests were
badly managed or carried out at the wrong locations, Greek officials said.
In July,
Greece
called a bidding round for three
oil and gas offshore and onshore explorations in the western part of the
country. The government hopes there are about 280 million barrels of oil there.
It received
bids from companies such as Hellenic Petroleum , UK-based Chariot Oil and Gas,
as well as Schlumberger, the world's biggest oil services company by market
value, which teamed up with local partner Energean Oil and Gas. The government
is expected to announce the winning bidders soon.