Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was quick to raise the US-based energy corporation Chevron to the status of an “international institution” with regulative authorities beyond pure profit after the multinational company expressed interest in hydrocarbon exploration in two maritime blocks south of the island of Crete.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mitsotakis said the energy multinational’s interest “actively recognizes Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the (maritime) region”.
Chevron is also participating in a consortium active in similar offshore exploration southwest of mainland Greece.
Daily to tovima.gr notes that “for Athens, the development further negates what it has vilified as an illegal Turo-Libyan memorandum” that attempts to delimitate maritime zones between the two disparate countries by essentially “erasing” and ignoring all Greek islands and territory – including Crete, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean – in between.
In late 2019, Ankara brokered an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) deal between Turkey and Libya with the Tripoli-based provisional government at the time, ignoring the international law and conventions and unilaterally putting forth claims and rights.
Mitsotakis also pointed out that the current Libyan government itself auctioned off two maritime blocks in its would-be EEZ, but using the midline between the nearest Libyan shoreline and Crete.
