Greece expands gas ambitions: Chevron signs contracts to explore gas fields

A consortium led by US company Chevron signed agreements to explore natural gas deposits. The deal doubled the area covered by licensed blocks where exploration is under way, and is the second agreement to be signed in a short period after ExxonMobil, Energean and HELLENiQ began exploration in another part of western Greece.

Monday’s agreement allows Chevron to explore four blocks in the Mediterranean Sea. Greece has divided its waters into several blocks, eight of which have been awarded. Chevron is also partnering with HELLENiQ Energy, a company in which the Greek state is also a significant minority shareholder. According to its report, the consortium, in which Chevron holds a 70% stake and HELLENiQ a 30% stake, was selected in a tender launched by Greece in 2025.

The awarded blocks are South Crete 1, South Crete 2, South of Peloponnese and Block A2. Together, they cover approximately 47 000 square kilometres. Under the agreement, the consortium will carry out a three-phase exploration programme to help map the area’s resource potential. Some of the areas the consortium wants to focus on lie a kilometre and a half below the surface, in geologically complex conditions. The agreement still needs approval from the Greek parliament.

Greece’s energy mix and gas

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), gas is the largest source in Greece’s energy mix, accounting for around 37% of total electricity generation, based on 2024 data. It has gradually replaced coal in the energy mix; coal was a major source at its peak two decades ago. Its share then began to decline gradually from 2010.

Greece, however, faces a problem. Although it chose gas as part of its energy transition and gas plays a major role in its energy mix, domestic production is negligible, making the country a major importer of the commodity, mostly US liquefied natural gas (LNG), but also gas from Norway, Algeria and Russia.

Although Greece’s current leadership has declared major ambitions for renewables and claimed the country would have a “green” electricity mix of 90% by 2030, following the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, the government decided to seek additional gas, including by authorising exploration. Some US giants had already expressed interest in doing so.

Greece is gradually planning to become a gas hub, meaning it aims not only to produce gas domestically but also to serve as an entry point for LNG (mainly from the US) into the European market. It is already making some progress: for example, supplies to Ukraine are increasingly arriving from the south, via Greece. The European Union considers gas a transition fuel. It remains to be seen, however, whether exploration will progress faster than developments in the energy market.

Under the agreement, the consortium has five years to identify potential reserves, after which exploration wells are expected to be drilled between 2030 and 2032. It is unclear what demand for gas will be like by then. It is therefore impossible to predict whether such a capital-intensive investment will make sense in a few years’ time.