A consortium of three companies has said it has made a successful bid for an exploration concession on the Patraikos bock, offshore western Greece.
Hellenic Petroleum (operator), Petroceltic International and Edison International, will each hold a one third working interest in the concession.
The Patraikos block is in the Gulf of Patra and covers an area of 1892 sq km in 100-300m deep water.
It is expected that the new concession, to include a three year initial exploration period, will be formally awarded to Hellenic Petroleum in late 2013. A work program in the first three years will include 2D and 3D seismic data acquisition.
The Greek government has been focused on re-opening exploration activities offshore, including creating a new state-owned oil firm. A new license round is scheduled for the second half of 2014.
PGS acquired 12,500km of multi-client 2D data in Western and Southern Greece earlier this year. The firm says there has been a 15-year break in hydrocarbon exploration in Greece. Most seismic data acquisition and drilling occurred between 1977 and 1987.
Processing of the new data is ongoing and is estimated to be complete in December 2013/January 2014. It will be combined with 6000km vintage data re-processing into a regional interpretation.
Brian O’Cathain, Petroceltic’s Chief Executive, says: “The Patraikos block lies in an underexplored offshore area with good regional hydrocarbon potential.”
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