ATHENS – The environment and energy ministry has taken legislative initiatives to accelerate hydrocarbon exploration, Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas pointed out during a meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which was held on Tuesday at the Hellenic Hydrocarbon Resources Management company to discuss the exploration and extraction of domestic fossil fuel deposits.

Skrekas also stressed that a new working group will be set up, while the company will address a letter to the concessionaires informing them of the government’s intention to speed up exploration to locate and exploit natural gas.

According to reports, the focus is on offshore gas fields and not oil reserves or land “plots”, while the aim is to speed up the processes along the lines of other countries in the region, such as Egypt, which have adopted rapid procedures for both exploration and the start of drilling for hydrocarbons.