Oil and gas activity in the Aegean Sea are detrimental to Greece – they will not generate net revenue for either the state or society, but they will increase tensions in the region

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his associates are swaying public opinion on two fronts. On the Ionian Sea side, they are triumphantly proclaiming that, “at last,” ExxonMobil will begin “exploratory” drilling in 2027. And on the Aegean side, where they are planning, in partnership with Israel, a “vertical” network for the transport of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Greek ports to Eastern European countries that do not have access to the sea.

“Mitsotakis Ltd” demands that the Greek people glorify it for making the country a productive transit hub for fossil fuels, but MERA25 reveals their lie.

Firstly, even if oil is found in the Ionian Sea, Greece and its people will not see a penny. As MERA25 pointed out in Parliament years ago, even if ExxonMobil’s reserves are large, the state will receive peanuts, while it will have to pay for the damage when there is an accident or oil spill.

As for the taxes that they say the state will collect, MERA25 revealed why they will be zero: the profits of the parent company ExxonMobil will not be taxed, but those of its Greek subsidiary, which (miraculously) will never show a profit. Quite simply, we will be buying our oil from ExxonMobil as if it had been imported from Alaska. All we will be left with from these extractions is the cost of ecological degradation and destruction, with all that this entails for tourism.

Secondly, the vertical axis for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the height of irrationality. Think about it: they will bring gas from Texas to transport it via Kavala and Alexandroupolis to the north, to countries bordering Ukraine and Russia, where natural gas costs a tenth of the price in the US. So, what is the economic rationale behind this “vertical axis”? To sell Texan LNG at ten times the price, something that can only continue if Europe is in a state of constant war with Russia.

In other words, “Mitsotakis Ltd” is partnering with genocidal Israel (as the consortium in question is composed of the well-known Greece-Cyprus-Israel triangle) so that, with negligible economic benefits for the country, Greece can support the American oil companies so that there will never be peace in Eastern Europe.

MERA25 sheds light on how both of these developments – extraction in the Ionian Sea and LNG transport in the Aegean Sea – are detrimental to the country: They will not generate net revenue for either the state or society. They will increase tensions in the region and, ultimately, make Greece complicit in climate destruction on the one hand and genocide on the other. We call on all political forces to take a stand on this economic and ecological crime.

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