Environment and Energy Ministry notes Trump’s post regarding the Mitsotakis government’s energy strategy

In a move that, according to Greece’s Ministry of Environment and Energy, underscores the leading role Greece is playing under the leadership of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the emerging geopolitical energy architecture, US President Donald Trump proceeded with a notable public endorsement.

Specifically, as the ministry highlighted, Trump reposted via his personal account on Truth Social the exclusive interview granted by Greece’s Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, to Breitbart News, described as one of the most influential media outlets aligned with the US administration.

The post carries additional significance given that Trump had just returned from Beijing, where he held a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, during which global energy policy was among the issues discussed.

The interview given by Papastavrou to Breitbart, on the sidelines of the Delphi Economic Forum, outlines the strategy of energy realism underpinning Greece-US cooperation.
The minister stated that Greece is pursuing a vision of realism in energy policy, advancing both hydrocarbons and renewable energy sources.

“So, it’s not wind or sun, or the hydrocarbons, it is all of the above. It’s wind, sun, hydrocarbons, hydro, geo – everything. For Europe, this is something that is a wakeup call, because Europe is the largest client of the US, importing US LNG. At the same time, there have been very hesitant – or let’s say, ambivalent – EU member states on trying to develop their own natural gas. So, Europe is dependent on natural gas, but they were not willing to accept an energy mix the natural gas should be part of for the years to come and President Trump – realism. I think this is something that we see in Greece’s approach as well. We have sun, we have wind. We need to move faster in terms of storage. Storage is very key,” Papastavrou said.

“The big picture is the following. Greece, for a number of years – for decades – has not explored this hydrocarbon potential,” Papastavrou told Breitbart News and added: “I think now it’s the time [for] the Mitsotakis government to move in an accelerated pace in this direction. The two largest, globally, US energy companies Chevron and ExxonMobil – have expressed an interest and are actively participating here. ExxonMobil, in a consortium, will be doing the first exploratory drilling after almost half a century in Greece, in the Ionian Sea in the so-called Block 2, and this will be the first in deep water and will go down to 4,600 meters. Any exploration that has taken place in Greece until now, 40 years ago, has been in shallow water. It’s, let’s say, not as deep as now. Greece’s potential is all around the country in deep water. So, this can have a transformative impact for the country. So, this action and the consortium is doing the exploratory drilling next February. We signed the drilling contract one week ago with ExxonMobil. It will be Standard Drilling, which is one of the leading Swedish drilling firms, and when it comes to Crete and the Peloponnese, we passed through the Parliament in February, four agreements with several which will start doing the geological surveys by the end of this year. So both in the Ionian and in south of Crete and the Peloponnese, with the two largest U energy companies, Greece is moving ahead into exploring the hydrocarbons.”

amna.gr