Article by Olivier Vardakoulias in macropolis.gr
In the bitter politics of the memoranda years, major points of agreement among political parties were scarce - at least in terms of rhetoric. One of the few exceptions to this rule was the programme for oil and gas exploration and exploitation in Greece.
Since 2012, successive Greek governments have progressively granted an area of 78,000 sq km for onshore and offshore exploration and exploitation, with lease contracts encompassing both stages.
The process of leasing this vast area, 2.5 times the size of Belgium, continued under the SYRIZA-led government, while the newly elected center-right New Democracy administration is committed to this endeavour.
On a superficial level, it is easy to understand why virtually all political parties and media have embraced the prospects of oil and gas drilling. In the crisis-ridden country, upstream oil and gas is widely perceived as a means to attract FDI, enhance employment in what has historically been a high value-added sector, reduce oil dependency and import bills, and even (for some) as an instrument to repay part of the accumulated mountain of public debt via royalties and other taxes on drilling operations.
The narrative of an “easy solution” to Greece’s economic woes may be attractive, particularly in a country accustomed to discourses of simplistic silver bullet “solutions” to economic development.
However, in the current global context, this consensus thinking is astonishingly narrow-minded, by missing out entirely the complex economics of oil and gas.
Crucially, it ignores the elephant in the room, so to speak, which is climate change mitigation, the implications of the Paris Agreement for energy markets and the fate of fossil fuel infrastructure over the coming decades.
