Oil in Ionian and Adriatic

In an exclusive interview for Top Channel, the Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Changes, Janis Maniatis, confirmed the importance of oil researches in the Ionian Sea, considering it as an interesting objective, but did not accept to give concrete numbers for the quantities of oil and gas.

“All scientists tell politicians to not declare huge quantities and reserves before they actually start extracting regularly. But to reduce your disappointment, I can say that the Ionian Sea seems to have enough interesting objectives. This is the right formulation for interesting objectives, such as in the South of Crete. We are sure that when we will declare the concessions for the Ionian Sea and Southern Crete in the next year, we will have an investment interest from huge and serious companies, so that they can come and invest to find reserves of oil or natural gas. There are encouraging and serious indicators, but we have to wait for the science and investments to prove the among of oil in these areas. At any case, the Ionian and Adriatic Seas have high premises for oil”, Maniatis declared.

As for a future cooperation between Greece and Albania, Maniatis underlined that they are expecting more cooperation in the energy field, due to the TAP project, but they didn’t exclude the other fields too.

“In the energy sector, I can say that the TAP Pipeline is a big step, but at the same time we will cooperate in other activities, such as the economizing of energy with buildings, things that could create new fields of close cooperation. Certainly that there is already a huge field of cooperation even in the Environment Ministry sector. I had the pleasure to have a cooperation with the competent minister, and we will have a close cooperation in the matters of forests, biodiversity, waste management and others, and even helping the Albanian side with technical experience”, Maniatis declared.

TOP Channel, 07.11.2013