A working meeting took place today at the Ministry of Environment and Energy on March 5th, 2026, following the storage permit granted by the Hellenic Hydrocarbons and Energy Resources Management Company (EDEYEP) for the nationally and strategically important project “Prinos CO₂” to EnEarth Greece – a subsidiary of Energean.
With this decision, the main licensing stage defined by national and EU legislation has been completed. The process began in 2022 with the granting of an exploration permit to assess the potential for CO₂ storage in the area.
The Minister of Environment and Energy, Mr. Stavros Papastavrou, stated that “Greece is taking a leading role in the energy sector and is also pioneering cutting-edge technologies. In December, we passed the law on the capture, utilization, transport and storage of carbon dioxide. Today, just three months later, the storage permit was issued to EnEarth. This is an important development that contributes to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and protecting the environment, while at the same time strengthening the competitiveness of our industry and supporting sustainable development. In this way, Greece becomes the third country in the European Union, after the Netherlands and Denmark, to move forward with the implementation of this innovative technology, placing itself at the forefront in Europe.”
For his part, the CEO of EDEYEP, Mr. Aristofanis Stefatos, stated that “The granting of the storage permit for the ‘Prinos CO₂’ project is an important step for the development of carbon capture and storage technologies in Greece. These technologies can significantly contribute to reducing emissions in industrial sectors where a large portion of emissions originates from the industrial process itself. In such sectors, emissions cannot be substantially reduced without the use of technologies such as CCS, which makes the geological storage of CO₂ an important tool for achieving climate targets and transitioning to a low-emissions economy. EDEYEP, as the responsible authority, completed the evaluation of the technical dossier through a strict and well-documented process in accordance with the national and European regulatory framework, and will continue to exercise its institutional role in supervising and technically monitoring the project in all subsequent stages of its implementation.”
Mr. Nikolas Rigas, Head of Carbon Storage at the Energean Group, said: “We are particularly pleased that the major carbon storage project in Prinos is becoming the first project in Southern Europe to receive a storage permit, following the standards of the most environmentally advanced countries in Europe. The project plays a decisive role in combating the effects of climate change, supporting the competitiveness of our industry, and maintaining industrial activity in the Gulf of Kavala, which has been developed for almost half a century with full respect for the environment, tourism, fisheries, and all activities of local communities.
The investment, exceeding €1 billion, is progressing rapidly, and these days we have awarded one of the most important tasks, the Preliminary Engineering Design, which will be undertaken by Kent, one of the most established technical companies in the sector, headquartered in the United Kingdom. Our plan is for the storage facility to be fully operational before 2030.”
The underground storage of CO₂ in the nearly depleted Prinos reservoir is a project of particular importance and a key infrastructure of national and European interest, within the framework of the country’s integrated energy and climate strategy and the protection of domestic industry. It is the first geological CO₂ storage project implemented in Greece and only the second in Southeastern Europe.
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