The Ministry of Environment and Energy has decided to extend until November 23, 2025, the exploitation license for Energean's depleted natural gas field in South Kavala.

This is the field that was intended for the Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility (UNGF), a project that, after many problems, has been left frozen with no clarity from the government as to what the next steps will be. It is recalled that the tender announced by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund ended ingloriously in March 2023, as no binding offer was submitted by the interested investors (the consortium GEK Terna-DESFA and Energean). Since then, the Ministry of Environment has been giving one extension after another to the operating license.

CO2 STORAGE

More optimistic are the developments, however, for the large CO2 storage project in Prinos that Energean is running. According to recent statements by Enearth's CEO, Aris Stefatos, within 2024 the storage license is expected to be granted to Enearth, the Energean subsidiary that has taken over Prinos CO2 Storage. He said the project material, which consists of 45 technical reports and 1,000 pages, is currently in the technical assessment phase, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
In addition, he noted that the environmental conditions permit, which was submitted in early August, is also pending, as is the notification of DG Clima, which is obligated to provide comments before the final permit is issued. 

NEXT STEPS

Energean has received approval from the European Commission for €150 million in state aid funding, an important step in moving forward with the first phase of the €500 million investment, which envisages a storage capacity of 1 million metric tons of CO2. At the same time, a request has already been submitted to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to obtain additional €150 million of funding for the second phase of the project, during which the storage capacity is expected to reach 3 million metric tons per year, while the investment will exceed €1 billion. In addition, the company plans to resubmit the application in order for the project to remain on the list of projects of common interest.

WHAT IS required?

In order to start the construction of the Prinos CCS project, the following are required:

• the completion by the State of the regulation for the entire CO2 capture and storage chain
• the approval of the storage permit by the NDEEP for the entire process of the entire chain of custody of the carbon capture and storage system.
• the submission for public consultation of the Environmental and Social Impact Study
• the completion of a binding market test within the first quarter of 2025
• the conclusion of contracts with the company(ies) that will receive storage space
• taking a final investment decision within the first half of the year

Provided this timetable is met, the storage facility could be licensed in the first half of 2026 and start receiving quantities of compressed CO2 at the end of the year.