The challenges and opportunities for shaping the energy mix, with a view to maintaining energy independence and security in the transition to clean energy, were discussed in the context of the 9th Delphi Economic Forum.

The Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy participated in this discussion Alexandra Sdoukouthe Managing Director and Country Manager of Energean in Greece Katerina Sardisthe CEO of DESFA Maria Rita Gallithe CEO of HelleniQ Upstream, HELLENiQ ENERGY Tasos Vlassopoulosthe Secretary General, East Mediterranean Gas Forum, Egypt Osama Mobarez and Managing Director, Fannon Global Advisors, USA. Frank Fannon. The discussion was moderated by the Academic Director at the Hellenic Energy Forum, Michalis Mathioulakis.

The development of the hydrocarbon exploration plan in Greece was mentioned by Ms. Sdoku, noting that within 2023 seismic surveys were completed in the granted areas, and now the process of analyzing the results is underway. “Never in post-war Greece have we had so many two-dimensional and three-dimensional investigations,” he characteristically noted. As he said, after the analysis stage of the results is completed, “I want to believe that the companies will be able to proceed with making a decision on exploratory drilling in 2025, with the aim of the first drilling being done sometime in 2026”.

Answering a question about the use of natural gas in the context of the green transition, Ms. Sdoukou asked the question “If we eventually have natural gas production, do we prefer to import or exploit our own reserves?” then recalling the steps that have been completed in Greece and the European Union on the way to the green transition.

At the same time, he reminded that the government practically supports the drilling plan, is in cooperation with the companies and seeks to facilitate them in the licensing and related procedures. “I always remain optimistic and I repeat that the government has undertaken a commitment and a strategic goal to make Greece a key gateway and energy transit hub to Europe” he concluded.

“We are one of those companies that started with oil and with the experience and know-how we have gathered, we have moved on to natural gas. And now we are moving forward with the first underground CO2 storage project in Greece, while we are considering the implementation of similar projects in foreign” said Ms. Sardis.

Referring to the transition plan to a green energy mix from Europe, Ms. Sardis went on to say that the transition policies were designed on a working assumption that we would have cheap and available natural gas from Russia. “The absence of Russian natural gas calls us to rethink these plans and make corrections”, he added, underlining the need to move forward, in parallel, with projects to modernize electricity transmission networks that are key to increasing the penetration of RES .

At the same time, he expressed the assessment that the natural gas of the Eastern Mediterranean can be a key factor in supplying Europe with reliable, affordable and sustainable energy in the course of the energy transition. “The Eastern Mediterranean and domestic production can play a catalytic role with natural gas, but our industry, although it has proven that it can be part of the solution, needs a positive signal from the European Union at policy level” , he underlined.

Ms. Galli said: “We need to be unbiased in how we approach the green transition. There is no sustainable transition without energy security. We have already seen this in the Ukraine crisis. Security means diversifying the energy mix. That message was clear. And we remain reasonably optimistic because we have seen in practice that we can be resilient in the face of challenges.”

In this context Ms. Galli pointed out that natural gas has proven its resilience after the shock of the price spike two years ago. He underlined the importance of the new terminals that have been built in the country for the import of LNG, stressing that so “dependency on a single source is reduced”.

“We need faster procedures in mining”, emphasized Mr. Vlassopoulos, underlining, at the same time, the need for support from the state and the European Union as well as regional cooperation for the development of upstream in the region. “We we are in 6 blocks with partners”, said noting that the two-dimensional and three-dimensional investigations have been carried out and today the resulting data are being analyzed in order to follow the decisions for the next steps. Finally, he noted the pivotal role of refineries that must be recognized as part of the industrial green strategy and underlined the need to redirect more resources to ccs innovation and technology funds.

Mr. Mobarez spoke about the crucial role that natural gas plays today in the direction of energy security and the green transition. At the same time, he underlined the importance of utilizing new technologies and listed the initiatives undertaken by the East Mediterranean Gas Forum in this direction. In addition, he noted that new projects for the storage and use of carbon dioxide emissions as well as the utilization of depleted aquifers in Egypt are being considered and significant developments are expected in the coming months.

For his part, Frank Fannon emphasized that there is always a tension in the relationship between energy transition and energy security, underlining the key role of reliability while making special reference to the risks hidden by external factors, such as Europe’s dependence on China for production of new RES projects. In this context he mentioned how we should review the objectives, partners and processes involved in the green transition concluding that “we have to be careful and do our best to reduce our dependence on external factors”. Finally, he underlined the need for the cooperation of all involved bodies, governments, industry, investors and businesses active in the energy sector.